Beyond Dimensions
by AyJTee
Summary: Star is lost in an unknown dimension and is dragged into the plot of an extra- dimensional being. Contains Starco.
1. Chapter 1: Lost

_Gone? Just gone?_ Marco stared at empty space in front of him. _Can't be..._ He reached an arm out to check that the space was indeed empty, for some reason he seemed surprised to find that there was nothing there. _Nothing? No one?_ Marco's head was a mess of emotions and thoughts, unable to focus on any one thing. It was like his entire world had just been ripped out from under his feet, leaving him standing there to just exist.

It all happened so fast, he tried to recall what he had just happened, what he had just seen, but he couldn't calm his mind. Marco could've sworn there was someone standing right there, right in front of him, but everything was now telling him that exactly the opposite was true. _Was it a lie? Was it all a lie? No. Couldn't be. I would've been able to tell. Such a long time... six years. No. I would've noticed._ Marco still couldn't focus on one thing. The star had been ripped from the centre of his solar system, and now the remaining planets danced in the empty void without any coherence or purpose or destination. Just specs of dust spat out into endless nothingness.

Marco collapsed, he couldn't cope with trying to unravel what had just happened and having to stand at the same time. Marco replayed the events again in his mind. The two days leading up to this moment raced in front of his eyes, too fast for him to get a proper picture, but just slow enough to garner details about what happened. _She_ had been there. For all of it. All except the last part. Now she was just gone. Something had been bothering her in the days prior; Marco could at least tell that much. She had something that she wanted to tell him, or ask him. It was clearly something important, or else she wouldn't have been so apprehensive about just saying it. That's not how she was. _Well. Not now, not for years. But there was a time._ Memories came flooding back into Marco's mind like a dam had been broken.

Marco suddenly remembered everything. Everything they had been through together. Everything that made them who they were today. Everything that was happy, but also everything that was sad. Years of experiences completely saturated his thoughts and Marco was still unable to focus on any one thing. But then he saw it. The focus around which all his thoughts rallied. In just a moment he had gone from complete confusion to having a crystal clear purpose, all because of the object he had just spotted on the ground in front of him. A long curved band of red plastic. Marco picked it up to examine it more closely. There were two smaller pieces of plastic placed on top which protruded upwards. As Marco turned it in his hands, a few strands of beautiful blonde hair fell from it. It belonged to _her_. It was the only proof that Marco had right now that she even existed in the first place.

Then it came back to him, hitting him like a truck. Marco remembered what had transpired that led to him holding her headband with her nowhere in sight. Something had happened between them. Emotions were running high and things were said which Marco regretted. Then, before either of them could possibly react, a black portal opened up behind her, and she was dragged through. The look of terror that she had given him as she fell backwards was now haunting Marco. It was made worse by the fact that there was nothing he could have possibly done. It was too fast for him to respond. He felt so helpless, so useless, unable to be there when she needed him the most. All that was left of her now was the hair band that she must have dropped as she was dragged through.

Tears were now hanging in Marco's eyes threatening to stream down his face, as he came to the realisation that the single most important person in the entirety of the universe had been torn away from him, possibly forever. Marco wiped the tears from his cheeks as she would have not approved. Now was not the time for tears, now was the time for action.


	2. Chapter 2: Life Part A

Star was feeling anxious, she didn't really know how to bring something like this up. It was still considered early on earth and she wasn't sure that Marco would be one hundred percent on board with the idea. Even worse he could agree just for Star and end up silently resenting her for the rest of their lives. The resentment would then of course grow and grow over many, many years, until Marco finally reached the breaking point and would not want anything to do with Star ever again. One wrong move and Star could end up losing Marco forever. _Nope. No. Not happening_. Star would just wait. _Yeah, wait until the right moment, I mean that is probably what Marco would do in my position._ Star suddenly realised that Marco had been talking to her whilst she was thinking about all this and was now looking at her with a somewhat perplexed look on his face.

"...and that's why I would wait." Marco finished. Star went bright red. _Did he somehow just read my thoughts? Does he know everything already?*gasp* Is he listening to my thoughts right now? No. That would be silly Star, humans don't have the ability to read minds, Marco told me so on multiple occasions when he didn't know what I wanted and had to come up with some sort of excuse._ Star then realised that Marco was looking at her rather expectantly.

"You okay Star?" Marco asked with concern quickly crossing his face, "You seem distracted."

"U-uh, y-yeah..." Star replied, "just you know... thinking about stuff, princess stuff." This was not entirely a lie which made it easier to tell Marco. Star looked at him, she didn't like having to lie to him (even if technically it was a lie by omission), but at the same time it was no small thing resting in the back of her mind and she had no idea how Marco would react. Star's focus fixed upon the mole on the left side of Marco's face and she brought her hand up to his face to gently brush her thumb against it.

"Heheh... so cute" Star cooed before she grabbed Marco's hand and continued leading him down the street they were walking along.

Marco put up no resistance as Star led him down the street, to be perfectly honest, this was the dynamic of their relationship. Not that that was a bad thing. Star was his driving force, pushing him to be adventurous and experimental and he was the brakes, making sure to stop before things got of control. Marco liked that they made such a great team, they completed each other. Made a whole that was greater than the sum of it's parts. It made Marco feel like he truly belonged with Star and would honestly follow Star anywhere to preserve the relationship that was so precious to him. Marco gazed at Star as she led him, he could clearly see that something was bothering her and she was still deep in thought about it. The way that Star would purposefully avoid his eyes was her tell.

Marco knew that Star hurrying along the street was an effort to get away from her problems, it was something she had done all the time that he had known her and was probably one of the things that he would like to change about her. Then again that was one of the reasons he was here for, to help her through these problems. This time however Marco could tell that she wasn't going to just tell him all about it. The only other times that this had happened was when the problem concerned him. This last thought sent Marco's mind aflutter with bad thoughts. _What is it about me? Have I done something wrong? Is she bored with me? Is the relationship over?_ Marco's thoughts became more and more anxious until Star suddenly stopped.

"We're here!" Star happily announced. Marco looked at the location she had chosen for today's lunch date. It was a classic American style diner, which was odd considering they were not in America or even on earth.

"Where are we Star? What kind of dimension has an American style diner?"

"It's the dimension of other dimensional cultures!"

"But why wouldn't we just go to earth?"

"I thought it might be fun to see how close to earth it is. Plus if we get bored we can go across the street and try some other dimension's food."

Marco squeezed Star's hand, "Whatever you want." Star giggled happily and led Marco through the door of the diner. They sat down in a booth and glanced at the menus that were waiting for them there. Star was biting her bottom lip, deep in concentration; it was still weighing on her mind, she just couldn't shake the thought. Star knew the only way to deal with the problem was to just come out with it. Whatever happened next she was not doing herself or Marco any favours by keeping it hidden. Star looked up at Marco who was absent mindedly browsing the menu. She was potentially about to destroy his world and that gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. Nonetheless it had to happen at some point and why not now?

"Sooo... Marco," Star began, being careful to not make eye contact with him, "you ever think about things?"

"Things?"

"Yeah, you know like how- "

"Can I take your order?" a waitress had just appeared at the table. Star was staring daggers at her for interrupting her train of thought – it was hard enough trying to talk about it without other distractions getting in the way.

"Yeah I'll have a bacon sandwich please." Marco replied

"The All Day breakfast please" Star said through a forced smile. The waitress left and Star stared after her, silently cursing her for interrupting what could have been a very important conversation.

"Star?" Marco's voice snapped Star back into reality and she gave him a somewhat embarrassed smile.

"You sure you are okay? You seem very distracted, and I mean more distracted than usual." He paused a moment before continuing, "You were saying something just now? But you got interrupted?"

"Oh, right. Yeah it doesn't matter, it wasn't important or anything." Star was again making sure to not make any eye contact with Marco, she knew that her emotions would surface there and give her away, this was not something that she was ready to share... yet. Marco didn't seem to notice Star's behaviour at all, which was weird because it felt like she was making it far too obvious.

* * *

After lunch, Star was in a giggly mood, she was hyped up on all the sugar she had added to her meal. Marco was familiar with this and knew he just had to let Star do her thing and burn off all her energy; the main challenge was making sure she didn't get into too much trouble while this was happening. Star skipped down the street, eyeing all the different buildings around them, clearly looking for something but unsure what exactly it was. Star had the wand drawn, which worried Marco because she was turning it in her hand somewhat menacingly.

Star suddenly stopped and span around on the spot coming face to face with Marco. Not expecting this sudden change in momentum, Marco nearly walked directly into her, just about managing to stop himself, mere centimetres separating them. Star was staring into his eyes intensely.

Star's eyes were probably Marco's favourite thing about her. Not only were they a beautiful shade of blue, but they were incredibly honest. For some reason, Marco could always tell what Star was feeling, just by looking into her eyes. The sudden proximity to Star was having an effect on Marco, he could feel the emotions rising in his chest and he leaned in.

"Marco?" He snapped back into consciousness, "Do you want to see a rainbow?" Of course in her hyped up state, Star was oblivious to what Marco was thinking; not that Marco could blame her, at this point he was sure that Star was more sugar than Mewman.

"Sure Star." Marco said with an understanding sigh, not realising what he had just sanctioned.

"RADIANT RAINBOW BLAST", bright lights shot out of the end of Star's wand and formed a perfect rainbow in the sky. It would have been pretty if not for the fact that it immediately crashed straight into a building across the street. Some angry looking blobs with wiggly waving arms came pouring out of the building to see the damage that Star's spell had caused. The rainbow had knocked a chunk out of the upper floor of the building.

"It's not that bad, I can fix that." Star said, before the roof of the building collapsed and completely took out the rest of the upper floor. Everyone was speechless. Star and Marco just stood on the opposite side of the street, mouths agape. All of the strange blobs stopped looking at the destruction and turned around to find the culprit. Star and Marco were the only ones on the street at the time and thus were caught directly in the cross hairs of about ten angry blob people who immediately made moves to cross the street and confront them.

"Uh Staa-", Marco was cut off as star grabbed him by the hand and ran off down the street with Marco in tow.

Despite their globular form, the blob people were managing to keep pace with Marco and Star and were showing no signs of fatigue.

"We are not gonna outrun them Star. We need to lose them down an alley." Star nodded in approval and turned to the right down another main street. Then, while they were momentarily out of sight they dipped quickly into an alley way and took shelter behind some bins that were housed there. The pair crouched and waited for the sound that would signal the passing of the blob people. A rush of squelches moved past the entrance to the alleyway and Marco breathed a sigh of relief. He went to get up off of the floor but Star stopped him and held a finger to her lips. Star carefully and quietly peeked around the edge of the bin they were hiding behind and she saw exactly what she had suspected; a blob person was coming down the alleyway.

"They found us," Star whispered, "get your scissors out now, we need to leave." Marco didn't waste any time and quickly found his scissors from inside his hoodie and opened a portal behind him.

Star heard the ripping sound behind her that was the portal opening and she knew it was loud enough to alert the blob person in the alleyway. A second quick peek around the edge of the bin confirmed this; the blob person was now moving hurriedly towards their location. Star span on the spot and leapt into Marco, sending them both tumbling through the portal head first. Marco landed on the hard floor and let out a short grunt when Star landed on top of him. Star snatched the scissors from Marco's hand and looked back up at the portal to see the blob person looking back at her, she stuck her tongue out as she closed the portal. Marco sat up with Star still in his lap, they exchanged a look before they burst into hysterical laughter. As the laughter died down, they pressed their foreheads together and looked deep into the other's eyes. Marco broke the silence by suddenly standing up, causing Star to yelp in surprise; Marco had picked her up and was carrying her bridal style. Marco gave her a smile before putting her down on her feet and placing a hand gently on her cheek. Star was looking up at Marco and cupped his cheeks in her hands. They leaned in ever so slowly until their lips met in the middle. Marco's hands made their way down to Star's hips and her hands snaked their way around his neck. They were now completely lost in each other, just enjoying the here and now. All of Star's worries seemed to have melted away, she was at peace with him.

A few minutes later and they had finished. At this point Star realised she had no idea where they were, Marco's portal could have taken them anywhere in the universe. Without breaking the embrace she looked around and was relieved to see that they had landed in her bedroom. Star rested her head against Marco's chest, she had remembered about what was bothering her, but didn't want to let this moment end just yet. Marco returned the hug and they stood there for a further minute or so. When they finally separated, Marco was startled to find that Star had tears pooling in her eyes.

"Star, tell me what's wrong." Marco said with genuine concern.

"Oh nothing." Star said unconvincingly, and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Just you."

"Me? What have I done?" You could hear the anxiety in his voice.

"Nothing, not like that, you just make me so happy."

"Oh." Marco said relieved as his face returned to a smile.

 _He would never upset me. At least not on purpose. But...no, not like that, I don't want him to feel like he has to, just to make me happy. I only want him to if he wants it._ Star decided to not bring it up just yet. There was still time.


	3. Chapter 2: Life Part B

"I know it's not a simple subject Star but it is necessary. We do not have forever, time will not stand still for you." Queen Moon was lecturing Star.

"Ok mom, it's not like I haven't tried, I just keep getting interrupted. Besides the moment needs to be just right and I'm not sure how he will react."

"Don't worry about it so much, he loves you, that is plain to see, I'm sure he will react just as you want him to."

"But what if he just agrees to make me happy? I want him to want it. How will I know?"

"You can't Star. You just have to trust him to be able to make the decision that is best for him."

"I do trust him! I'll ask him tonight." Queen Moon smiled but Star remained unconvinced and had a frown on her face.

"It'll work out honey. It always does." Star nodded before turning and leaving her mother in her office in the castle.

 _Just do it Star. What's the worst that can happen? No, don't think about the worst, think about the best._ Star was trying to muster as much confidence as she possibly could as she marched through the corridors of Mewni castle in search of Marco. This was happening. Now. As Star turned a corner she saw the familiar flash of red that indicated Marco.

"MARCO!" She practically screamed after him. A second of pause before Marco stuck his head round the corner.

"Hello?" Marco said, confused as to who had called his name with such urgency, before the answer came running over to him, who else would it have been?

"MARCO!" Star called again.

"Star?" Star stopped in front of him

"Heyyy Marco, so do you remember the conversation we were having earlier?"

"Star we spent the entire day together, I'm going to need a little more to go on than that."

"At the diner in the dimension of other dimensional cultures."

"Yeah, ok, the diner."

"I was trying to tell you something. Well ask you something." Marco stood in silence waiting for the impending question.

"Its just that it's a really delicate issue, and I don't really know how you'll react, and I know that you love me and I don't want that to make you do what I want, I want you to do what you want. I mean, I want you to do what I want, but only if you really want it, you know?" Marco nodded although he wasn't entirely sure what Star had just said. "Here we go," Star was mentally bracing herself, "It's about our-" Star was cut off as the heavy wooden door next to them swung open and hit Marco square in the face.

"Star my dear! How are you?" King River had appeared in the doorway, and was seemingly unaware that he had just hit Marco with a solid wood door.

"Dad! What did you do?"

"What did I do? Did your mother tell you something?"

At this point, Star had rushed to Marco's side and was checking him for injury.

"Oh Marco my boy! What are you doing down there on the floor?"

"Dad! You just hit Marco in the face with a door!"

"I did? Oh no. Are you okay?" Marco let out a groan in response, he was barely conscious. Star took out her wand and used magic to levitate Marco in the air.

"I'm gonna take him to my room for some rest." Star said as she left River alone in the corridor.

* * *

Marco woke up in a warm, soft environment. At first, he thought that he might be wrapped up in one of Star's hugs, they were just like this, warm and soft, but most of all there was the distinct scent of Star. Marco couldn't quite describe it; it smelled of strawberries and flowers and bright colours. Marco opened his eyes to find that he had been sleeping in Star's bed.

"Star!" Marco cried out and she jumped up from her desk where she was sitting, a worried look written across her face.

"Marco! Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Marco responded groggily.

"My dad hit you with a door..." Star said apologetically.

"Oh. Weren't you trying to tell me something before that happened?" Star's ears went red.

"Oh, don't worry about that now."

"You sure? It sounded kind of important."

"Yeah but I want you to be at your best when I tell you and I'm not entirely sure you don't have a concussion," Star responded while checking him for signs of a concussion, "we'll talk about it in the morning."

Star climbed into the bed alongside Marco, and he pulled her across the bed to press her body against his. Marco brushed her hair out of the way and quietly whispered into her ear,

"Love you Star."

"Love you Marco." Star squeezed Marco's hand gently as they drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The sun shone through the window and the light landed on Star, waking her up, her eyes fluttered open and she let out a contented yawn. Star turned her head around to see Marco, who appeared to still be asleep, pretty much the same as when she last saw him. Star was still enveloped in Marco's warm embrace, so she stirred in an attempt to get him to let go without waking him. Instead, Marco tightened his grip on her and nuzzled the back of her neck.

"You can't leave." Marco said in a soft voice. Star giggled softly and turned over to face him, his eyes were still closed as if he was pretending to still be asleep.

"Why not? I'm a princess!" Star pouted.

"Not to me, you are just Star to me, and Star is mine." Star smiled and gently placed a kiss on his lips. Marco may not have been ready, but Star sure was, she more forcefully moved out of his embrace. Star moved around the bed towards the wardrobe to get dressed and Marco rolled over in the bed to face her.

"Weren't you trying to tell me something yesterday before your dad hit me in the face?"

"Oh! Yeah." Star had become lost in the moment and the entire thing had completely slipped her mind. "It was kinda important." Star was speaking while changing into a very regal royal blue dress.

"Wow, why so fancy?"

"I have to address the people today and my Mom says I need to dress like a proper princess for it."

Marco quietly chuckled to himself, he knew that Star hated doing the princess stuff; he knew she felt like it was taking away her individuality, but she did it anyway because she knew that it was her duty to the people of Mewni. Marco liked that Star thought about the needs of others before herself. It was a trait she had picked up after the battle for Mewni and would serve her well as the future Queen.

When Star had finished getting ready, she turned to face Marco and let out a long sigh.

"Okay, so I need to ask you about us, about the future and how you see us fitting into it."

"What do you mean?"

There was knock at the door, "Star, can I come in?" Queen Moon's voice appeared on the other side of the door. Star looked at Marco, whose mouth was wide open, obviously in deep thought. In fairness, it was a lot to drop on him when he had just woken up. Star looked back towards the door.

"Yeah, its open."

The door opened and Queen moon in very regal attire appeared in the doorway. Moon hurried into the room and took Star by the hand.

"We have to go now Star or we are going to be late."

"What? No, Mom, give me a second."

"There is no time, we must go now, the people expect it." Moon led her out of the room and Star looked back helplessly at Marco who was still sat on the bed.

"This is a really bad time, I was just talking to Marco." Moon was quickly leading Star down the corridors of Mewni castle, and ever further away from Marco.

"Oh really? What did he say?"

"Well I don't know because you barged in and stole me before he could get a word out."

"Don't worry Star, this should only take an hour or two."

"That's not the problem. Every time I manage to work up the courage to ask him, something always gets in the way. It makes it seem like the universe itself is against the very idea."

"Don't be ridiculous Star, I'm sure it'll all work out for you soon enough."

* * *

Star headed back to her room, that had taken far longer than she would have liked and she desperately wanted to find Marco to make sure he wasn't freaking out about what she had dropped on him before her mother pulled her away. Star quickened her pace, understanding that the situation was getting worse with every passing moment she left the subject hanging in the air. She turned corner after corner, completely focused on her destination. Star knew the route well and was not wasting any time – she turned the last corner and came face to face with the door of her bedroom.

Star took a deep breath and entered her room. A quick look around revealed that Marco was not in here. Both relief and frustration surged through her, resulting in a somewhat confusing concoction of emotions. Star knew that she could not put this off any longer - perhaps it wasn't the perfect way for it to happen, but it had to be now.

"Call Marco." Star spoke to her mirror.

After a second or two of static, Marco's face appeared on the mirror and Star lit up.

"Hi Star. " Marco responded.

Star cocked her head to one side, something was wrong with him, there was something in the tone of his voice and how he avoided making eye contact. Star shook the thought out of her head, whatever was about to happen was going to happen.

"Where are you? I want to finish talking about what we were talking about this morning."

"I'm in the gardens, I needed some space to think."

"Oh, okay, I'll come and find you."

"Okay, I'll see you soon Star."

Marco was lying on the bench in the castle gardens, watching the clouds above float by. Part of him wanted to change into one of those clouds and float away from all of his troubles, but he lacked the power to do so and would have to face his problems instead. Marco knew that Star was coming to talk to him and he had been over every possible permutation of that particular conversation. Some of them were bad, and some were good, leaving Marco very confused and anxious.

"Marco?" A concerned voice carried over the gardens.

Marco sat up and looked over to the voice to find Star, still dressed in her beautiful blue dress, emotions were swelling up inside of him, "Hey Star," he said has he shuffled across the bench and motioned for her to sit down, Star obliged.

"So I wanted to continue what we were talking about earlier... about us." Star paused for a moment to look at Marco who was staring right at her in anticipation, "You see, there are big things happening in my future... sooner than I might like. Not things that I can run away from, not things that I _want_ to run away from, and I have to do what is right for me just like you have to do what is right for you."

At this point Marco had stopped staring and was hanging his head, clearly distressed by the things Star was saying, she took a deep breath.

"So I guess what I'm saying is-" She was cut off by the beeping of her compact mirror. Star's eye twitched with anger.

"What I'm trying to-" More beeps from the mirror.

"What I've been trying-" again interrupted by the mirror.

"Really? Are you actually kidding me right now?" Star took out her mirror and threw it across the gardens. "I've been trying to talk to you about this for so long, days now!" Star said pointedly.

Marco was little taken aback, it seemed to him like Star was getting angry and he couldn't understand why.

"But every single time I manage to work up the nerve to talk to you about it, SOMETHING ALWAYS GETS IN THE WAY!" Star was shouting at Marco now, letting out all her pent up frustration from the past few weeks. "YOU GET HIT IN THE FACE! MOM DRAGS ME AWAY! MY STUPID MIRROR WON'T STOP RINGING! YOU'VE MADE IT SO HARD."

"ME? THIS IS MY FAULT? HOW IS THIS MY FAULT IN ANY WAY. IN WHAT POSSIBLE DIMENSION IS THIS MY FAULT?" Marco, who was feeling attacked, had started shouting back at her. "EVERYTHING WAS GOING GREAT. I WAS HAPPY, ALL BECAUSE OF YOU. NOW YOU TELL ME YOU WANT TO END THINGS AND SUDDENLY IT'S MY FAULT?"

Star realised what she had just done – she wasn't angry with Marco, he just happened to be there while she was venting about the past two days. Her expression instantly softened as she attempted to diffuse the situation.

"No, Marco, that's not what I was saying at all."

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY? YOU'VE BEEN TRYING FOR DAYS NOW, JUST COME OUT WITH IT, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE SO IMPORTANT?" Marco was still upset with Star. He was a whirlwind of emotions right now and it was all he could do to prevent himself from having a breakdown right where he stood.

"I want to know, I wanted to ask, will you-" As Star was uttering these words a pitch black portal with a golden outline opened up behind her. Black flames poured out of the portal and worked their way around Star's arms and legs. Before either of the two could react, the flames pulled Star back into the portal and her headband fell to the floor. The portal closed, leaving Marco alone in the gardens, mouth wide open and the faint sound of Star's beeping mirror in the distance.


	4. Chapter 3: Search

Marco picked himself up off of the floor and grabbed Star's headband, tears in his eyes but he knew that he couldn't do nothing. Marco placed his hand against the wall where Star had been standing and relived the event in an effort to pick out any details that could help him now. _A black portal?_ He figured it out, Marco raced off into the castle, what he had to do was as clear as the sun in the sky; he kicked himself for not realising it immediately.

"Ah, Marco," A startled Moon had just come around the corner and was nearly knocked over by Marco racing past. Marco glanced behind him with an apologetic look on his face, but there was no way he was going to slow down now, who knew what was happening to Star. There was some muffled shouting that he heard behind him, which Marco assumed was Moon trying to get him to stop and talk to her.

Marco rounded the last corner and stopped at the entrance to his bedroom. Marco didn't spend much time in here any more as he had practically moved in with Star, but there was something specific that he was looking for. He went to his bedside table and looked through the drawers, not finding it, he then moved to search the wardrobe when there was a knock at his door. _Who would be knocking at my door?_ Marco thought to himself.

"Marco?" came the familiar voice of Queen Moon, she must have followed him down the corridor after he had nearly ran straight into her. Marco was too busy to reply.

"Did you talk to Star yet?" Moon asked as she opened the door to Marco's room. There was still no response from Marco.

"Look Marco, I know it's a lot but you just have to focus on the larger picture. Star really does love you and she wouldn't put you in this situation unless it was absolutely necessary." A pause from Moon while she decided how to continue.

"I know you love her too, Marco, and this is something that has to happen if you want to stay together." At this Marco snapped his head towards the door.

"What has to happen?" Marco's nervous response came.

"Oh! I had assumed you had talked to Star." Moon was quickly backtracking.

Marco opened the door. "I did talk to Star, we got into a fight and then-" a small tear started to form in his eye as he was finally facing the truth of what had happened, "then she was taken." Marco couldn't look the Queen in the eye and so instead settled for the floor.

"Taken? What do you mean? By whom?" Moon was becoming distressed at the news that her daughter had been kidnapped.

"I don't know," Marco admitted, "but I'm going to find her." He said with a new determination burning in his eyes. Marco took a step back from Moon and found what he had been searching for, his pair of dimensional scissors.

"How are you going to find her? What are you going to do? Marco tell me what happened!" Moon was getting desperate now, but Marco wasn't paying any attention.

"Hang on Star, I'm coming for you." he said.

Marco made the cutting motion in the air as he had done so many times before. There was a tearing sound as the scissors cut a hole into the fabric of reality. A swirling light blue vortex appeared in front of Marco, who took a deep breath before continuing.

"I'm here for you, your life line." He muttered under his breath before bravely passing through the portal, not knowing where it would take him.

Queen Moon watched as Marco took a moment to steady himself before launching through the portal to find her daughter. The Queen herself was an emotional wreck, her daughter whom she valued above all else had been taken from her. Saying that she was worried would have been the understatement of the century and as a result, Moon had real difficulty arranging her thoughts. She stood in the doorway of Marco's room, watching the portal hum ominously before Marco was thrown back out of it to land on the floor.

"Marco!" The Queen cried before rushing to his side, "What happened? Where is Star?"

"I..I don't know. I don't know where she is, so I can't reach her with the scissors." Marco quietly cursed himself for not remembering that from the last time Star was lost in an unknown dimension. Marco looked up at the Queen for an answer, an idea, some advice, anything. Moon was speechless. She had no ideas. Nothing. Her baby had been taken and there was nothing that she could do about it. Something inside of her had broken, or was missing.

Realising the distress that the Queen must be in, Marco stood back up, ready to try again. This time, before cutting the air he quieted his troubled mind and focused all of his being onto one thing... _Star_. Everything that he loved, everything that he loved her in spite of, everything that she was, everything that she could be, all that she meant to him, every experience, all the heartache and mistakes, how Star had changed him for the better and how he had changed Star. In that moment, Marco could have sworn that he felt Star's standing right next to him, as if she was reaching out across the dimensions to touch him. He made the motion with the scissors to open a portal. This time, a pitch black portal began to open in front of him. _Just like before, it's working!_ The portal began to form, but just as it was getting big enough to pass through it shimmered in front of him and collapsed in on itself.

"NO!" Marco screamed at the empty space in front of him. Marco was frantic now, he tried again... the portal collapsed. He tried again... same result. And again and again and again. Nothing was working! Marco collapsed onto the floor. He had come so close. If only the portal could keep its stability a second longer, it would be enough for Marco to squeeze through.

Moon placed a comforting hand on Marco's shoulder, "Marco, tell me what happened, tell me everything."

Marco looked up to face her. Moon had a brave face on, but Marco could see through it, he could see the hurt in her eyes, the loss she had suffered.

"We were in the gardens. We got into a fight. Things were said. Then a black portal opened behind her and she was dragged inside... it happened too fast for me to do anything." Marco looked down at the floor, ashamed at his lack of action.

"A _black_ portal?" Moon narrowed her eyes before channelling her magic through an outstretched arm, and made an attempt to open a portal for herself. Once again a black portal opened in Marco's room, only to lose its stability and collapse a second later. Undeterred, Moon took a moment to collect herself, she breathed in and out slowly and the diamonds on her cheeks began to glow white. Marco saw her mutter something under her breath, but did not hear exactly what it was. When Moon's eyes opened again they were glowing white in the same way her cheeks were. She stretched her arm out and attempted to open the portal again.

The black portal opened and began to shimmer, threatening to close once again. This time however, the portal didn't close, but it did look unstable, as if something was holding it open. Marco looked over to Queen Moon, she had clenched teeth and was supporting her outstretched arm with the other, sweat was starting to form on her forehead. There was clearly a level of physical exertion necessary in order to keep the portal open. Not wanting to waste any more time, Marco moved towards it. Marco placed his hand on the portal to test it, but instead of passing through like he had expected, there was a tangible barrier preventing him from entering the portal. Marco pressed harder but no ground was given by the shimmering black void. Frustrated, Marco punched the portal in an attempt to break through to the other side, only to injure Marco's hand, but he didn't take any notice. Marco placed both of his hands on the portal's surface and concentrated on Star again as he applied pressure. This time the barrier gave way a little and became rubbery, moulding around his hand as he pushed further into the inky void. _Just a little more._

Just then, Marco heard Queen Moon collapse behind him and immediately the portal responded by releasing a wave of energy, knocking Marco backwards onto his back, before it finally collapsed. Moon stood up and brushed the dust off of her dress.

"Marco, stay here, I'm going to talk to the high commission." With that, Queen Moon hurriedly turned and left Marco alone in his room.

Marco sat for a moment, wallowing in self pity. He could've stopped this from happening. If he had just reached out his hand he could've caught her and stopped Star from falling into the portal. Instead he just stood there and did nothing. Just watched as she fell away from him, a terrified look on her face. And now here he was, doing the same thing again, sitting on the ground, unable to help the most important person in his life. Marco let the feeling wash over him, really soaking in the truth of the situation. Tears began pooling in the corners of his eyes and he let his emotions get the better of him for a moment.

Marco steeled himself and wiped the tears away from his cheeks. Moon had told him to stay put, that she was going to talk to the magical high commission and that they would be able to rescue her, but Marco knew better, he knew that they would never be able to penetrate that void. He knew that he had only come as close as he had because of his connection to Star. Marco could feel her presence willing him onwards. She was the reason that he could push back the barrier, no one else had that ability, no one else had the same connection with Star that he did.

Marco stood up, a renewed determination burning in his eyes, he was not going to sit still and do nothing, how could he? No, he was going to find a way to get into that void and drag Star back to Mewni. There had to be someone somewhere who knew more about this dimension and why it was resisting his attempts to enter. All he had to do was find them.


	5. Chapter 4: Helpless

It had been four hours since Moon had left and told Marco to wait in his room, he was starting to get restless. Moon had told him to stay put, that she and the high commission would be able to find her, Marco wasn't so sure. At this point, Marco was convinced that it was his connection with Star that allowed him to gain any ground on the barrier at all. That meant that he was the only one who could reach her, after all, who had that same connection with her? No, it had to be him. Unfortunately, Marco was out of his depth, he had no idea what was causing his portals to collapse or why a barrier had formed in front of Moon's portal. Someone must have run into this problem before, someone must know how to get around it.

There was an entire school of thought dedicated to learning about the different dimensions: how they operate and more importantly how to travel between them. Marco had once been to a group of dimensional scholars... long ago. It was back during his time in Hekapoo's dimension when he was earning his own pair of dimensional scissors. Marco had since discovered that there was a sect of dimensional scholars on Mewni, far away from the castle. They were probably his best bet for finding Star. Marco contemplated telling the Queen where he was going and what he planned to do, but he figured that their odds of success were greater if they were both working to find Star and he didn't want to give her any false hope.

Marco glanced around his room before he left, thinking about what he should bring with him to see the dimensional scholars. _Will they charge me?_ Marco wondered, before deciding that it was unlikely and if he needed to he could just come back to the castle anyway. With his dimensional scissors in hand, Marco opened up a rift in front of him and stepped through.

The portal opened up onto a pasture of red grass stretching across rolling slopes that disappeared into the distance as the sun slowly rose above them, basking the entire scene in a golden glow. Though it was a beautiful view, it was not what Marco was expecting to see on the other side of that portal. There was supposed to be a library here. Marco turned around and found what he was looking for – the Grand Library of Dimensional Theory.

Marco's jaw dropped in sheer awe of the colossal structure that stood before him. To say it was enormous would be quite the understatement. The front door alone was a feat of engineering; there were interlocking bars of metal pointing in every direction, forming some sort of mechanism to open the door autonomously, it was huge, it could have easily been ten storeys tall. The library itself was a mess, it looked as though rooms had been added on one after the other. The architecture wasn't even uniform across the building, the most ancient designs were centred around the enormous door, and it became progressively more modern as you reached the edges of the library. There were random towers placed haphazardly into the bulk of the building, that were tall enough to rival those of Butterfly Castle. It all looked incredibly impressive to Marco who was feeling more than a little intimidated. It also did not look structurally sound what with all the random additions that had been placed onto it overtime. None of this helped Marco's anxiety, but he knew that the only way to Star was somewhere in that library.

Marco took a deep breath before walking forward towards the door and he moved to knock on it. As soon as Marco's knuckles touched the cold metal surface, it began shifting underneath his touch. The metal bars were sliding across each other, all moving outwards from where his hand had touched the door. Before long, a rectangular hole had formed and it was the perfect size for Marco to walk through. Marco glanced upwards at the rest of the door and wondered who or what would be big enough to need use of the entire structure. Marco refocused his thoughts as he passed through the doorway into a poorly lit passage.

* * *

Marco felt like he had been walking for ages, though the time was probably exaggerated as he couldn't exactly see where he was going. He was being guided by faint lights which would ignite in sequence in front of him and then proceed to extinguish themselves as Marco passed them. After a few more minutes of walking in the dark, Marco saw a light at the end of the corridor and quickened his pace, the sooner he got out of this library the better.

The passage opened up into a large circular chamber with a domed ceiling, there were about twenty doors spaced equally along the walls all around the room. The passage Marco had just exited had closed behind him. There was nothing in the room except for a large wooden desk right in the centre, with a very tired looking goblin sat there. The goblin was wearing a very simple set of blue robes, his head was propped up in his hand, and his eyes were only half open.

"Uh, hi?" Marco tried to get the attention of the goblin, "Hello?" The goblin still didn't move at all. Marco waved his hand in front of the goblin's face in an effort to catch his attention. Getting slightly frustrated with the goblin's lack of situational awareness, Marco prodded the goblin in the shoulder.

The goblin suddenly snapped wide awake and swatted Marco's hand away with his own.

"Hey kid! What do you think you are doing?" The goblin said angrily

"I-I was just-" Marco wasn't sure how to respond.

"Don't go touching people in their sleep, it's weird."

"You wouldn't have woken up otherwise."

"Like that is an excuse for touching me in my sleep, you creep. Just tell me what you are after so that you can get the hell out of my reception."

"I'm just having trouble keeping a portal open, I was wondering if there was a book in here about it."

"Oh, you thought there might be a book about _dimensional portals_ in the Grand Library of Dimensional Theory? You are pretty smart kid."

The obvious sarcasm frustrated Marco. "Look, can you just point me in the direction of what I'm looking for?"

"Whatever, dimensional misalignment, right down there." The goblin pointed to one of the many doors on the edge of the room. At his gesture, the door lit up and opened revealing yet another dark passage for Marco to wander down.

The passage ended on a wooden balcony that overlooked perhaps the biggest single room Marco had ever seen. There were bookshelves practically everywhere, forming what had essentially become a maze with several floors. There were floating stone platforms, shifting this way and that, carrying passengers around the library. Looking around, Marco wasn't really sure how he was supposed to get down to the floor of the library, the balcony he was currently stood on was high above the floor, and he didn't see a ladder or a staircase to help him get down. Just as he was thinking about a possible way to safely reach the ground, an empty stone platform floated over to him and stopped right next to the balcony. Marco made a leap in logic and climbed onto the platform, which was surprisingly stable given it was being supported by nothing. The platform took Marco to a less populated section of the library. When the stone platform had completely stopped moving, Marco carefully stepped off of it and entered the maze of a library.

* * *

Marco had been in here for a few hours now, looking at random books he found on the shelves which he thought might be vaguely relevant to his problem. So far he had found absolutely nothing that could help him get past the barrier, or any mention of a black portal. Marco was beginning to get frantic now, and was moving from book to book more quickly, desperately looking for some answers that would help him get to Star, or even just a book that would tell him where she was.

It was clear that Marco wasn't going to be able to accomplish this task alone, he had remembered seeing other people in here, perhaps he could enlist the help of one of them. Marco retraced his steps to find his way out of the section of library he was in to get to the place where he had seen the people before. Once he had returned, his eyes fixed on a goat person in the same blue robes he had seen the goblin wearing.

"Excuse me." Marco called out to the goat person.

The goat immediately turned around to meet Marco's gaze. It's stare was intense, like it was looking into Marco's very soul, it was also not blinking, which unnerved Marco a little.

"I was wondering if you could help me find some information in here," Marco continued but the goat didn't break its stare, "I'm new here and I could do with some help." This time the goat did respond, but not with words, no it started aggressively bleating at Marco who was a little intimidated to say the least. At this point, another person in the same blue robes came over to Marco and started stroking the snout of the goat person softly. Whatever he was doing, was certainly working as the goat gradually stopped bleating at Marco. The newcomer then carefully led the goat away from Marco, although the bleating had stopped, the goat still threw him some threatening looks from over it's shoulder.

When the goat was a safe distance from Marco, the man who had calmed it down came back over to Marco.

"Sorry about that, he can get a little contentious when someone new arrives." The man said with an apologetic look on his face.

"Oh uhh, it's ok I guess. I just need someone to help me find a certain piece of information." Marco was still a little concerned about the goat person, but he put the thought to one side.

"I can probably help you, what are you looking for exactly?"

Marco hastily explained what his issue was, how a friend of his had fallen through a dimensional portal, and anytime he tried to open portal to her it had collapsed in on itself. He described how someone tried to hold the portal open via magic, but when he went to pass through, there was a barrier preventing him from crossing the boundary of the portal. Marco was careful to ensure that he didn't mention Star or Moon by name, he didn't want any unsavoury rumours starting because of him. The dimensional scholar stood rubbing his chin for a few moments, clearly deep in thought.

"Can you show me the portal?" The Scholar finally asked.

Marco took out his dimensional scissors and proceeded to open a portal the same way he had tried to back in Mewni castle. The same thing happened – the portal opened and then collapsed in on itself.

"Hrmm, yes I think I see your issue. You see, the portal is black because there is no dimension on the other side. You are trying to open a portal to the space beyond dimensions. As there is nothing tangible on the other side, there is nothing for the portal to anchor to, causing it to collapse." The scholar explained.

"But how can that be possible, I saw a portal the same as this open behind my friend and pull her through. If there is nothing on the other side, how is she there?"

"I cannot answer that I am afraid. There are a few books in here dealing with the space between realms, but it's all theory work, none have been able to actually pass to the other side since the Ancient times."

"Can you show me to some of these books, I need to do some research."

"Certainly." The scholar proceeded to lead Marco through the library until he stopped at a bookshelf that looked exactly like all the others. The scholar took a book off of the shelf and handed it to Marco. It was titled _A History of Dimensional Travel_. Marco opened the book to the section that the scholar recommended and began reading.

 _Though the theory of a unified universe of dimensions has existed since before recorded history, it was impossible to travel between these dimensions with any degree of certainty or control until the beginning of the Era of Ancients. The beginning of this epoch is certainly marked by the rise of the "Prime Ancient" who, along with the help of his disciples, managed to unravel the mysteries surrounding Dimensional Theory. The Order of the Ancients believed that Dimensional Theory was far to dangerous to be given freely to the masses and so elected to only share their secrets with a select few which were inducted into the order. Many people during this time thought that holding a secret that big between so few people led to an unfair balance of power and if they so chose, the Order of the Ancients could be in control of every aspect of their lives._

 _Despite the relative fear surrounding them, the Order of the Ancients largely kept to themselves and continued their work on Dimensional Theory, compiling their work into texts which were released to the public upon their deaths. These texts revealed that they very quickly completed the unified dimensional theory by utilising a kind of focus that was discovered by the Prime Ancient. The later works of the Ancients revolve around an "extra" dimension, that lies outside the borders of the known universe. It is unknown how close the Ancients came to fully understanding this realm, as the age of their texts caused some knowledge to be lost. It is also unclear how the Order of Ancients came to an end, there are some accounts of a dimensional being putting a stop to their enquiries. It is also theorised that the Order of the Ancients still exists, and they have simply moved to another plane of reality to pursue a higher goal._

"So these Ancients, it sounds like they were looking into exactly what I need right now. Do any of their texts still exist?"

"Of course, though they are very old and precious to this library, and as such are kept away from the public, in the oldest part of the restricted section. Only the elder scholars have access to such documents."

"Is there any way for me to see these texts."

"Well, you could put in a request at the front desk. Though I would tell you that these scholars are incredibly protective of their knowledge and as an outsider, you are unlikely to be approved."

Marco stood in thought for a moment. He really did need that information, without it he doubted he would be able to figure out a way into the dimension beyond the borders of the universe.

"Thanks for your help, I'm going to find a way to get to that information."

"Good luck, I hope you find your friend." The scholar sounded sincere.

Marco left the scholar in the library and left to go back to the front desk. Once he reached the circular room, Marco was unsurprised to find that the goblin was still half asleep at the desk, supporting his head with his hand. Marco knew what to expect this time and so spoke rather loudly to attract his attention.

"Excuse me."

"Yeah, yeah, what is it." The goblin responded to the first attempt this time, which Marco was not expecting.

"Oh, I'd like to put in a request for access to the restricted section."

"I see, and what is your number?"

"My number?"

"Yes the number that the college gives you when you enrol..."

"Oh, I'm not part of the college, I'm just visiting." The goblin paused for a moment, he seemed confused by this revelation.

"Just visiting? And you expect to get access to the restricted section?"

"Please, I really need some information in there to help one of my friends."

The goblin laughed, "Well I'll put your request in, but don't go getting your hopes up, it's rare that even a member of the college will be granted access to the restricted section of the library."

Marco thanked the goblin, who informed him that it could take a few days for the response to come through and that they would contact him should he be approved. On his journey home, Marco began to formulate a plan... just in case they denied him access, he needed a way to get that information. Star's life might depend on it.


	6. Chapter 5: Awake

**A/N: I apologise for missing the upload from last Saturday. I was busy with two exams last week and consequently it meant that I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted to on this chapter. I decided to miss a week and improve this chapter until it was in a place that I was happier with. To tell the truth, I still want to work on this chapter a little but I could probably go on tinkering with it until the end of time and so I decided that you can just have it.**

* * *

Star woke with a start. It was dark, too dark to see, but she could feel that she was sat on something soft. There was a thin piece of fabric draped over her lower body. Star looked all around her, but her eyes hadn't adjusted yet, she could see only darkness. _It's ok Star, don't panic._ Star was trying to calm herself down, panicking now would definitely not help and could potentially worsen the situation. Star calmed her mind and focussed on what she could remember. _There was a garden, a portal... a mirror was ringing_. That's when Star noticed it. It was there, on her left side... something was _breathing_ next to her. Star turned her head slowly as her eyes were adjusting to the darkness, worried about what thing was in here with her.

Star breathed a sigh of relief to find that it was only Marco lying next to her, fast asleep. Star cooed at how cute Marco looked whilst he slept. It was at this moment, Star realised that she was in her bed, in her bedroom. Of course she was, where else would she be? Suddenly soothed by Marco's presence, Star curled back up under the sheets and moved closer to his sleeping form before drifting back to sleep.

* * *

Golden rays of sunlight passed through the bedroom window, and landed on Star's face, causing her to wake from her slumber. Star let out a tiny yawn and opened her eyes to see that Marco was already up and getting dressed.

"Good morning." Star said through another yawn as she sat up in bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes.

"Morning beautiful." Marco smiled back at her.

"I had a bit of a weird dream last night."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, we were in the gardens and I was pulled through a black portal"

"Pulled? By what?"

"I never found out, I woke up too fast."

"Well not to worry, there are no black portals to fall through in the real world."

Star smiled. "I suppose not."

Star got out of bed and started getting ready. It was earlier than she would have liked, but being Queen came with a lot of new responsibilities and so it was better to get an early start on these things, a policy which Marco had talked her into. Marco had helped a lot since she came into power, his ridiculous organisational habits were perfect for dealing with the administrative strife that came with ruling a nation. Thanks to Marco's invaluable assistance, the transition of power from Moon to Star had gone exceptionally well.

Star was pretty excited today, and she had a hard time hiding it, although in her defence, she wasn't really trying. Marco took note of the giant grin plastered across her face and that extra spring in her step,

"Excited for today?" he asked.

Star responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and catching his lips in a deep kiss. Afterwards, Marco had a similar grin plastered across his face. Star softly giggled and happily skipped away from him and down the corridor. As she travelled through the maze of hallways that lead to the throne room, she passed many servants, all of whom greeted her with a large smile followed by bowing deeply and saying "Good morning, your majesty." Star made sure to return the greeting to everyone, it was important to keep morale high, especially within the serving staff in the castle.

Everything was just _perfect_ , which was good, today was the anniversary of her coronation and Star didn't want anything to go wrong. Once she reached the throne room, she saw that it was full of servants setting up the decorations. One very portly individual rushed over to her before bowing deeply.

"Your majesty." The servant greeted, "I need your signatures for these orders."

Star absent-mindedly gave her signature where it was required, "So how are things going in here Manfred? Do you need more help to set up?"

"No, your majesty, things are _perfectly_ on schedule."

"Great! Let me know if you need anything."

Manfred performed another deep bow before leaving to make sure that the various groups of servants kept up with his very important schedule. Star smiled to herself as she took everything in, _things really are perfect_ she thought as she rubbed her stomach gently. Just then, someone approached her from behind and wrapped a pair of loving arms around her torso. Star sunk into the embrace as a very familiar pair of lips brushed against her neck. Star turned around to return the embrace, and looked up to see two brown eyes, belonging to her husband.

"Hi." Star said between giggles.

"Hey" came Marco's response before he kissed her on the nose.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Star asked.

"It's your special day, everything has got to be _perfect_."

"Everything is _perfect_." Star paused for a moment, "Maybe a little too _perfect._ "

"What do you mean? Is something wrong?" Marco was slightly distressed by Star's comment.

"I don't know, everything just seems a little unfamiliar."

"That doesn't make any sense Star, what could be more familiar than your own home?"

"I'm not really sure, it's something I can't quite put my finger on."

"Is everything ok? Do you need me to do anything?" Marco looked genuinely concerned. Star smiled, Marco was always this sweet and caring, and it was very comforting.

"No no, I'm fine, everything is great." Marco gave Star an unsure look before disappearing off into the crowd to do everything he needed to do for today as King.

Now that Star had mentioned it, she couldn't stop thinking about it. Something was definitely wrong. Well, maybe not wrong, just out of place. There was probably a completely rational explanation for the way that Star was feeling, maybe she was just nervous. _Yeah there is a pretty big something to be nervous about_. Star thought as she rubbed her stomach again. Star thought that going for a walk around some of the more scenic sections of the castle would help clear her head. The gardens of the castle were no different, everything seemed too _perfect_. The colours of the flowers too bright and vibrant, the grass was too green, the sky had a beautiful rainbow arcing across the sky, which was weird because it hadn't been raining. The smell of the plants was stronger, and the scents all mixed together perfectly to create the most _perfect_ atmosphere.

Something was definitely wrong today, something was definitely missing, or perhaps something was there that shouldn't have been. _Why would I only be noticing it now? What changed?_ Star tried to recall the last few days. It had been pretty normal, Star would go about her Queenly duties and nothing of any note had really happened, they were just planning for the party today. Star rubbed her stomach again, she hadn't told Marco yet, and thought that maybe she was just anxious about breaking the news. Star decided to just ignore it, it was probably hormones or something. It was time to enjoy the celebrations that had been set up for her.

* * *

The party was, of course, fantastic... eerily so. There were accidents and screw ups, but they somehow managed to fix themselves and never had an impact on the celebrations. For example, one of the servants carrying appetisers had tripped over something on the floor and the entire tray had gone flying. Miraculously however, through some feat of acrobatics, the server had managed to catch every single piece of food perfectly back on the tray. The weirdest things was that no one around him seemed to notice and just continued enjoying the party. Star definitely felt disconnected from the rest of the people in that hall, being the only one who thought something weird was happening.

* * *

After the party Star made her way back to her room because she felt like she needed to lie down after the confusing day she had just had.

"Hey Star!" Someone behind her had called her name.

"Hi?" Star turned around to see her husband, "Oh hi Marco."

Star didn't waste anytime, when he was within range she pulled him into a tight hug.

"Hey, you ok honey?" Marco began softly stroking Star's hair to try and calm her down.

"I don't understand Marco."

"What don't you understand?"

"Everything!"

"Everything? I might need a little more of a hint than that."

"Haven't you noticed, everything is far to perfect. Everything went so well tonight."

"That's only because of the huge amount of effort that went into making it the perfect day for you."

Star looked up at him with tears beginning to congregate at the edges of her eyes but she wasn't sure why she was upset.

"But there were things that happened that you couldn't possibly control. Everything has been so great that I even forgot what we were fighting about."

"Fighting, when were we fighting?" Marco asked.

"Yesterday, out in the garden, I was trying to ask you -" Star stopped mid sentence and pulled away from Marco.

A sudden realisation had come over her. Waves of confusion were now completely washing over her and she was having a hard time piecing it together. It became too much for her to stand and Star collapsed on the spot. The last thing that Star saw was Marco rushing to catch her before she completely blacked out.

* * *

Star woke up in a cold sweat. She was in an unfamiliar place. It wasn't anywhere in the castle or even on Mewni that she had seen before. The room she was in appeared to be made entirely out of gold. There was almost nothing on the walls save for some shallow lines engraved into the metal outlining the door and running around the edges of the room. Star was facing a window that looked out onto a courtyard which was similarly golden and devoid of much interesting architecture. It was night time, or at least that is what Star assumed as the sky was completely black and just as featureless as the compound Star was in.

Star tried to move off of the slab of golden metal that she was lying on to investigate further, but found that she was strapped to the makeshift bed by her wrists and ankles. Star struggled against her restraints but no ground was given by them. Star didn't know what was happening or where she was, but she knew that she needed to get out as quickly as possible. Before she could do anything else, Star heard the sound of a door sliding open out of her field of vision.

"Princess Butterfly." A smooth feminine voice had appeared behind her. Star was confused, she didn't recognize the voice and was in unknown territory. There was a soft clack of heels against the hard golden floor as the mysterious woman walked into view.

The woman was much taller than Star which gave her a very imposing appearance. She had very pale skin with a greenish tint and a head of jet black hair done up in a bun behind her. She was wearing a very simple strapless dress which flowed down along her body and ended in a train following behind her, it was white in colour. Her eyes were a piercing yellow and looked as though they had the ability to stare into your very soul. She had a small but somewhat pointed nose and thin lips pressed tightly into a look of indifference. She was accompanied by two dull looking creatures adorned in golden armour. They had long grey faces which were featureless save for two large eyes which looked out of the front of their heads.

"I see that you have finally awoken." The woman continued, "Although it took you longer than I expected."

"And who are you?" Star attempted to keep her composure. A smirk quickly crossed the woman's face as if she was expecting that response from Star.

"I am the ruler of this dimension." She said matter of factly, "My name is Kasula."

"Ok then, _Kasula_ , how about you let me out of here so I don't have to use my magic to bust out." Star was growing in confidence. Kasula merely chuckled at the threat.

"By all means, Princess, show me what you can do."

Star decided to accept the invitation and tried channelling her magic power, she could feel the energy gathering in her hands. Star looked directly at Kasula, ready to tear her a new one. Just then. all the power left her, or rather it was dragged out of her, as Kasula began glowing with a dark fiery aura.

"That won't work while you are on that table, dear. It serves only to strengthen my own power." Kasula summoned a ball of black flames to her hand while she was saying this.

"What do you want from me?" Star was more than a little scared now that her main source of strength had been taken away from her.

"Do you know where we are Princess?" Star did not respond, so Kasula continued, "we are beyond the dimensions that make up your universe. I brought you across the void that separates this realm from your own."

Star remained quiet, as Kasula turned to look out of the window as she continued her monologue. "I was trapped here long ago, by a group of dimensional travellers from your universe. They created a barrier designed to stop me from reaching your reality. For thousands of years I have been trapped here, a dimension lost amidst the never ending void, plotting my revenge on those scholars."

"If these scholars created a barrier to stop travel between this realm and the universe, how am I here now?" Star had finally found her voice. Kasula smiled.

"The scholars underestimated me. I have been storing my power for as long as I have been trapped here. It was only recently that I had gathered enough strength to temporarily break the barrier and so I used this strength to bring you here."

"But what is the point in that? Now we are both trapped here."

"You possess a very potent magical power that comes directly from your universe. The barrier that holds me here is designed to counter only my specific energy, you power will be able to break it and I will be able to again travel your universe as I please once more."

"If you want me to break the barrier, just let me up, I'll do it right now." Star spat at Kasula. Kasula turned back around to face Star and gave her a sinister smile.

"Do you really think me that foolish Princess? Do not worry, I have crafted a dream world for you to live out your life. It is based on your memories and your hopes for the future. It is better for you than reality."

Kasula crushed the ball of flame in her fist and then extended her index finger which was now glowing with the same dark fiery aura as before.

"Everything you ever wanted can be yours Princess, all you have to do is sleep."

Kasula moved towards Star, index finger still outstretched. Star was struggling against her restraints trying to get free before Kasula could do whatever she was planning to do toher, but to no avail. Kasula continued slowly advancing towards Star, who was becoming more and more frantic trying to think of a way out. Then Kasula's finger came into contact with Star's forehead and the dark aura washed over her. Star felt her eyelids grow heavy and then she slowly sunk back into her deep sleep.


	7. Chapter 6: Relentless

It had been an exhausting few days for Marco since he had returned from the library, not that there was anything to do, he was just worried sick. Marco would constantly return to the library over the course of the two days, not only to check to see if he had been approved, but also to continue scouring the books stored there for any information that would help him find Star. Some of the more observant servants around the castle had noticed the lack of a certain bubbly princess and rumours had started to fly about where and why she had left. One of the more prominent rumours is that the princess had contracted some sort of terrible disease and was now fighting for her life. Of course Marco and the royal family denied these rumours any time someone asked about it but that didn't stop the imaginations of the public from running wild. Every time someone tried to suggest that Star had died, Marco took it as a personal affront. There was no way someone as strong as Star could be killed so easily - Star was alive, he could feel it.

There was one thing that Marco could not deny however, it had been too long since he applied for access to the information that he needed; the goblin had said that it would only take a couple of days to process the application and Marco was becoming increasingly worried that his application was going to be denied. If his multiple trips to the library had taught him anything, it was that the only way he could reach Star was to use the information contained within the texts of the Ancients. Even Hekapoo had never been able to travel beyond the borders of the universe so the Ancients were definitely his best bet.

There wasn't much else for it, if they weren't going to let him in, he would have to let himself in. Marco had been thinking of a way to get into the restricted section ever since the goblin told him that it was unlikely that his application would be approved. Fortunately Marco had been spending an awful lot of time in the library the past few days and had made a point of memorising as much of the layout as he could, he just needed a way to sneak in without drawing attention to himself.

Marco began to formulate a plan of action. He knew that the restricted section was the oldest room in the library and that meant that it would be at the exact centre, so finding it would not be much of a problem. What would stop him though, was his clothes. Marco didn't exactly look the part and would stand out like a sore thumb if he tried to get in wearing what he was now. Marco would need a disguise and fortunately almost all of the scholars in the library wore the same blue robes. If Marco could somehow come into possession of a set of those robes, he felt confident that he could get past whatever was guarding the restricted section.

Enrolling in the college would take too much time, and ordering a set to be made would also take too long. As much as Marco didn't like the idea, there was really only one thing for it – he would have to steal the robes from an unsuspecting scholar in the library. In one of the books that discussed the workings of the library itself, Marco had discovered that the restricted section was protected from dimensional travel via the use of a tramorfidian crystal, rendering the scissors incapable of opening directly to the knowledge he sought. However, some of the newer additions to the library were too far from the centre to fall underneath the protection of the tramorfidian crystal. This meant that Marco could use his scissors to get into the library without having to go past the goblin at the front desk. All that would remain now is the problem of getting through the presumably locked door to the restricted section and for that he could just rely on his trusty bobby pin.

With his plan mostly formed, Marco decided that it was time to go as there was no point in wasting any more time. Marco took the scissors out of his pocket and sliced open a portal to a section of the library that he knew would be out of view of the common crowd that populated the many different corridors of the library. Thus began the hunt for some robes that Marco could use as a disguise. A few minutes of quietly passing between the many shelves of books later and Marco found exactly what he was looking for, a scholar that was all on their own. Marco summoned all of his stealthy abilities to sneak up behind the scholar without alerting them to his presence. Once Marco was within range, a swift strike the back of the head knocked the unsuspecting scholar out cold. After dragging the unconscious body to a more secluded place in the library, where it was more unlikely that they would be discovered, Marco tried to remove their robes in the most respectful manner possible.

Now that Marco had the perfect disguise, he opened a portal back to his room in Butterfly castle and tossed his clothes through it, before closing the portal. Everything was in place for Marco to get into that restricted section and get the information that he needed to reach Star. With thoughts of Star starting to settle into his mind, Marco quickly and quietly moved through the maze of bookshelves and corridors in the direction of the centre of the library. It didn't take Marco long, even though he had never walked this particular path, the layout of the library had a particular pattern and so Marco could navigate the library relatively effectively.

The entrance to the restricted section was a large brass gate, with a large ornamental lock positioned in the centre. The gate shimmered in the dull glow of the wall lamps that were hung along the corridors and rooms. Marco stepped forward to investigate the entrance and tried to put his hands through the gap between two bars in the gate. However, Marco's hand did not pass through the empty space as it was stopped by some sort of invisible barrier. The force pushing back against his hand felt just like the barrier that had formed in front of Moon's portal when she tried to enter the void. This barrier was likely as impenetrable as the other and so squeezing between the bars was not going to be an option.

If Marco was going to get through this gate he would have to somehow unlock it. Drawing the bobby pin that he had brought with him, Marco moved to inspect the lock and see what could be done to unlock it. For guarding the most treasured and ancient secrets of the College, the lock seemed surprisingly standard. There was always the possibility that the lock had unseen magical safeguards in place to stop someone like Marco from simply breaking in, but he still had to try. It did not take long at all for Marco to get the lock to open, it was definitely far too easy and that put him on edge. Marco was careful to be as quiet as possible when he pushed open the large gate, he didn't want to alert anyone who was possibly nearby. Marco quietly shuffled into the room which looked exactly like every other part of the library, except the books were clearly older and seemed as though they could fall apart at any moment.

It was at this moment that Marco realised he would have to scour this entire section of the library to find what he was looking for. He had as much idea about where to find information in this section as he did everywhere else, it could take him days to find what he was looking for. As Marco was pondering this he heard someone walk up behind him and place a hand on his shoulder. Marco turned on the spot ready to fight whoever had managed to sneak up behind him, when he came face to face with the largest man that Marco had ever seen, he had to have been twice his height and quadruple his weight. Marco was more than a little intimidated and shrank away from the man who simply smiled in response.

"You must be the applicant who was approved for today." The man's voice was much softer than Marco was expecting.

"Y-yes. That's right, that's me." Marco was unsure where he was going with this, but decided to play along anyway.

"Is this your first time in here? You need to sign in before we let you look at any of the texts."

"Oh, right, yeah I've never been in here before, all kind of new to me."

"Heh, not to worry, follow me and we'll get you sorted out."

Marco was gaining in confidence again, it seemed as though the answer to his problem had just been dropped in his lap, he would no longer be in here against the rules and perhaps this guard could help him find the information he needed. The guard led Marco off to the left of the restricted section where there was a small office which Marco assumed belonged to the security of the library. The guard shut the door behind Marco as he walked in.

"So where do I need to sign?" Marco asked.

"Look kid, I know you are not supposed to be here. No one has been approved for access to the restricted section all month." The guard replied calmly.

A lump had formed in Marco's throat and he began quickly scanning the room for anything that could be useful. Marco didn't rate his chances in a fight with this guy very highly, but maybe he could reason with the man, convince him to bend the rules this one time.

"Ok, you got me, I sorta broke in here. I have a good reason though, my girlfriend is trapped in another dimension and I need the knowledge of the ancients to-" The guard cut Marco off with a raised hand.

"I'm sure whatever story you've got has been very well rehearsed, but I am simply not interested in hearing it. We don't have to make a big deal out of this, if you leave now there will be no consequences provided I don't catch you trying to do it again."

Marco gulped but otherwise stood his ground, he couldn't afford to leave now, he was so close.

"I-I can't sir, not until I've found what I'm looking for." The guard sighed in response and stepped towards Marco, arms outstretched ready to grab him. Marco was ready however and managed to duck underneath and roll away from the guard to the other side of the room. Marco quickly surveyed the ground to look for some sort of weapon and his eyes settled on an empty beer bottle. In one swift motion, Marco picked up the bottle and moved to put the desk between himself and the guard. Marco took a deep breath and waited for his opportunity, he would likely only get one chance at this so he need to make it count. When the security guard charged Marco, he rolled underneath, taking advantage of the immobility of such a large target, sprang up behind him and brought the bottle down on the back of his head with all the physical strength that he could muster.

The bottle broke apart in his hands and the pieces of glass clattered to the floor. The guard was still standing but hadn't turned around yet. Then the guard began wobbling back and forth before falling with a large thud onto his face. Marco made sure that the guard was definitely unconscious before he left the office and returned to his mission of finding the information he sought. Time was of the essence now, the guard was too big for Marco to move to a more secluded location and he had no idea how long it would be before someone else arrived to relieve the guard of duty.

* * *

It took Marco a few hours to home in on the section of the library that he needed and to his surprise, no one had come looking for him yet. Marco had managed to find an assortment of scrolls and texts with titles like "Outside reality", "Beyond the known" and "Extra-dimensional travel". Some of these were bound to have a way to get to Star. As Marco was scanning the bookshelves, looking for more that could tell him how to get to Star, a loud alarm sounded throughout the library. The sound was deafening and stunned Marco for a few moments. Marco shook his head and regained his focus. It sounded like the alarm was coming from the office where Marco had left that guard unconscious, somebody must have finally found him.

Marco knew he had to move and so quickly planned a route out of the library that would avoid the office, as he assumed that is where anybody would be coming from. Without wasting a second longer, Marco picked up what he had found and dashed for the exit. Marco could hear a couple sets of footsteps on the other side of the bookshelf he was on and as he rounded the next corner he could hear some shouting from behind him.

"Oi! You! Stop!"

Marco increased his pace to a full out sprint and he heard the person behind follow suit. Marco didn't have far to go, but he could feel the person behind him catching up. If Marco could only make it out of the restricted section, he could open a portal outside the range of the tramorfidian crystal. Marco rounded a few more corners and then he could see it, the gate for the restricted section, and luckily, they had left it open. As Marco crossed the threshold he felt fingertips of his pursuer against his back. Marco couldn't fight whilst he was carrying the scrolls and books and so had to quickly dart to the left to create some space between him and the guard following him. Marco fumbled to get his scissors out of his pockets and quickly jumped into a cupboard next to him. Marco hastily opened a portal and dived head first through it. Marco rolled when he hit the floor and then span around to face the open portal, in time to see the guard opening the door to the cupboard. The guard's eyes opened wide and he dived for the portal to get through. Marco was faster though and used his scissors to close the portal, presumably leaving the guard to clatter to the floor in the library.

Marco took a deep breath and slumped to the floor, exhausted. He looked over at the stolen books next to him and knew he had better get started.


	8. Chapter 7: Ritual

Marco's room was a mess. He didn't have enough room on his desk to lay out all the books and scrolls that he had stolen and so Marco had laid them out all over the place – some were on the floor, some were on his bed, he'd even laid a few out on his windowsill. Marco was now poring over the texts and looking for the information that he sought. He had read a lot about the void and the possibilities of travelling outside of the universe, one book had even entertained the idea of using the space to act as a shortcut between distant dimensions, but another one had taken the time to explain and disprove that therory. Marco was becoming frustrated, he was definitely learning a lot and under different circumstances, the chance to comb through of this knowledge would have definitely excited him, but he wasn't finding the information he needed, he still didn't have a way to find Star.

Marco moved on to the next book, which looked like a journal of sorts and was titled "My Journey Outside of Reality". The journal had no indication as to it's author, but that hardly mattered now, Marco opened it up and started reading.

 _Day 731_

 _It's incredible! The knowledge that has been collected by the Prime and his disciples is more than I could ever have imagined. Access to the library of the Prime is an indication that I am reaching the end of my apprenticeship here and soon I will be tasked with adding to the knowledge. It seems an impossible task, to find a topic that has not already been extensively researched. I have a few ideas and I will be checking this library to see if any of them have already been thought of – and I imagine they have already been covered extensively._

 _Day 738_

 _Well I think I finally have it. After days of coming up with new ideas, only for them to be knocked down, one after the other by the knowledge already stored her, I believe I have found a topic that, although does appear in some texts, is quite unknown here in this library. I shall have to talk to my supervisor about starting the project, but it is quite possible that soon I will start research on travelling outside the known dimensions._

 _Day 1134_

 _It has been a long hard road of extensive research an unending scrutiny by my peers, but the theory portion of my project has been completed. Tonight I prepare the tools I will need out in the field, and tomorrow, my journey into the unknown and the practical portion of my project begins. I have planned to spend the next five years beyond the universe, gathering data and experimenting, before returning to the Sanctuary of Ancients and presenting my finished project to the high council._

 _Day 1135_

 _It's so dark. Everywhere, unending darkness. I'm not even sure what I'm standing on, or even if I'm standing. There is nothing out here, nothing to give me a sense of direction – for all I know I could be travelling in a small circle. It really is fascinating though. The way this place warps your mind, your senses, and yet doesn't at the exact same time. I feel like my mind has been opened by this place but also closed. Curious. Very curious. I'm not sure what I'm looking for here, but I will probably know when I see it._

 _Day 2876_

 _Hm? Yes. This book! I remember this book. I wrote things in here... will write things in here? Tenses are difficult in this place. There is no time here. I cannot remember why I am here, but I continue to study the darkness._

 _Day 3117_

 _Oh! I have found it. What I am searching for. A light! Yes, a light in the unending blackness. It's far away, very far. Don't know how far, the words escape me. I will continue, as I have been doing all my life._

 _Day 3879_

 _It's getting close now. I can feel it. I can feel the light on my skin. It has been a while since I had this sensation. How long? I can't remember. There are a lot of things I can't remember. I can't even remember how many things I can't remember. All I know is my purpose. What my purpose was, what my purpose now is. I was here to study the black. To record everything about here. But now, I exist to reach that light. To worship it. I will reach the light._

 _Day 4367_

 _One more, one more! One more and I will reach it. My destination! Finally after all this ti... I am wasting time, I must go now!_

 _Day 4733_

 _Today marks exactly one year since I arrived here. I have travelled all over the universe but I must say that this dimension is perhaps the oddest I have ever come across. First of all, it is incredibly small, I keep imagining that there is more to this world outside of the compound I currently find myself in, but all of my efforts to venture outside are met with failure. This would lead me to believe that what I see before me is all there is to this place. Secondly, the creatures here never seem to pay me any attention. I have to assume they are aware of my presence, as I have tried on multiple occasions to communicate with them, always to no avail. They have grey faces and two eyes, but no other facial features to talk of. They walk past me all the time, moving from one menial task to the next, without ever even so much as glancing in my direction. Lastly, the buildings here are very unique. I would have expected the architecture of a different dimension to be wildly different to what I'm used to, but that isn't the odd thing about it. It all seems to be made from gold. Well, not gold, but some metal or alloy that is golden in colour that I cannot identify. I will remain here until I am satisfied with my progress._

 _Day 4834_

 _I had to run! To flee! I left the light. I left it behind. She found me! That witch found me. I only wanted to stay in the light, but she chased me out. Back into the black. Now I will float on, continue my journey for all of eternity._

 _Day 8776_

 _I think I'm going back. Not to the light, no can't go back there. I'm going back to the start. There is an essence of familiarity. I'm sure of it. I'm going back!_

 _Day 11954_

 _I can see it! It's so big! I was right! I am going back. Not long now._

 _Day ?_

 _The author of this journal, Penticus Orrelius, was found dead in the dimension commonly labelled as Earth. According to the records documented by our order, Penticus disappeared around 35 years ago, when he embarked on his journey to explore the realm outside of our universe. Now, in accordance with the policy of our order, I am writing the final entry in the journal of the deceased for the benefit of any future scholars who might be studying the life of this man. All of the findings made by Penticus, of which there are plenty, have been collected by the order and are being documented in the grand library of the Prime. Perhaps we can learn about the realm that Penticus spent the majority of his life exploring and his death will not have been for naught._

 _Day ?_

 _I am revisiting this journal after looking through the work of Penticus. It is clear that travelling out into the realm beyond dimensions is too dangerous, it leaves you susceptible to insanity. There is also the problem of the extra dimension that Penticus found in his travels. While the Order of Ancients are certainly interested in exploring this dimension further, it is clear that some of the residents can be hostile. So, it is far safer to close the path and create a barrier around the edge of our universe, a barrier that no one will be able to penetrate, until we can safely cross the space beyond dimensions. There will be a safeguard built into the barrier: one will be able to open the barrier and pass through with the use of the dimensional focussing crystal located at the Sanctuary of Ancients._

Marco paused for a moment, trying to think, he could have sworn that he had seen a reference to the Sanctuary somewhere else in one of the scrolls he had stolen. Marco quickly looked through his collection to find the scroll. It didn't take him long to find because he had them laid out across the floor. Marco had dismissed this scroll at first, as it didn't contain any reference to the realm beyond the universe, but now that Marco knew he needed the focussing crystal to get through the barrier, it could prove to be the key to finding Star.

The scroll in question looked like it could be some sort of recipe... or ritual. The title of the scroll claimed that it would open a pathway that would lead to the Sanctuary of the Ancients, which is where the focussing crystal was supposed to be. Marco glanced over the contents of the scroll and it all seemed rather achievable. There were a few items that Marco would have to source, but the ritual didn't seem that complicated. The scroll had a depiction of the runes that Marco would need to draw on the ground. It depicted a circle with various symbols spaced equally around the circumference. There were two straight lines that were parallel and cut straight across the middle of the circle. Marco read the instructional paragraph of the scroll.

 _In order to reach the Sanctuary of Ancients, the sanctuary entrance must be in view of the ritual site. The sanctuary entrance is visible in all dimensions of the known universe and has been given many names. It is commonly referred to as "Polaris" and will appear as a bright light in the night sky. When the entrance is in view of the ritual site a pathway will form that will lead directly to the sanctuary._

 _Polaris? As in the "Noth Star"?_ Marco thought to himself. It seemed somewhat appropriate that the path to finding Star utilised her namesake. Marco looked out of his window at the Mewnian night sky, there were a lot of stars visible and it was unfamiliar to him. Marco couldn't pick Polaris out of the myriad of stars on Mewni, but he knew that he would be able to on Earth. It would be easy enough to source some chalk for drawing the runes necessary. Everything was within his grasp now, Star was once again within his grasp, and it left Marco feeling reinvigorated. Marco opened up a portal to a suitable location on Earth and began setting up the ritual.

* * *

Marco had arrived in a secluded corner of a car park in Echo Creek, it was late enough and far enough away that the chances of him being interrupted during the ritual were very small. Marco had considered going home to see his parents, but decided that it was more important that he completed this ritual and found Star as soon as possible. Marco had only brought a few things with him: chalk for drawing the runes, the instructional scroll, the journal of Penticus Orrelius, a few days worth of rations and his sword "El Choppo". Whatever had taken Star that day did not seem friendly and Marco thought it wise to bring something along that would provide him a means to protect himself. Marco glanced up at the night sky to make sure that Polaris was in plain view of the car park. After confirming that this was the case, Marco began drawing the ritual as depicted in the scroll.

Once the drawing was complete, Marco took a step back, anticipating something magical to happen in front of him but nothing did. Marco looked up at Polaris, then down at the circle he had drawn on the ground. Was it possible that he had misidentified the star? Maybe the information was too old and had become outdated. Just as all the hope was draining away from Marco, the runes that he had drawn on the floor began to rotate across the surface they were drawn on. The lines in the centre of the circle were aligning themselves to be at a right angle to the light from Polaris. Once the runes had stopped rotating, they all started glowing at once and a ramp made from pure light extended out from the two lines in the centre of the circle and continued up into the sky towards Polaris.

Marco stared at the magically formed pathway, not really sure how he was supposed to proceed from here. The scroll did say that this pathway was supposed to lead to the sanctuary, so Marco placed his hand on the ramp to test the strength of it. It seemed solid under Marco's touch which seemed somewhat counter intuitive given that it was composed entirely out of light. Marco placed his foot against the ramp and allowed more of his weight to push against it, again the ramp remained solid. Feeling a little more confident, Marco stepped completely onto the ramp and took a few steps up it, before pausing. It seemed weird to Marco that the ramp made of light was somehow successfully holding his weight. Marco looked up the ramp towards his destination – Polaris, the "North Star".

"I'm here for you, your lifeline." Marco muttered underneath his breath, before continuing onwards.

* * *

Marco was approaching the star with alarming pace. He had only been walking for five minutes, but he couldn't even see the ground any more. Something about the magic that was being used here must have been warping the space around him, or else Marco figured it wouldn't be too long until he wouldn't be able to breathe. Polaris was getting much bigger and much brighter as he came close to it; it now took up around half of everything he could see in front of him. Marco wasn't really sure if he was supposed to keep going or not, maybe he had walked past the entrance to the sanctuary and was now wandering off into endless nothing. It made no sense to turn back now though, and so Marco pressed onwards, just hoping that he was doing the right thing. After a couple more minutes of walking towards the now totally blinding star, the ramp disappeared from underneath Marco's foot, leaving him to plummet towards the unbelievably bright light. Then space morphed around him and Marco was falling through a swirling blue vortex. Fleeting images from Marco's past were appearing in the vortex with him, he could see his life unfold. Then the images caught up with the present and he could see things that had happened only days ago. After that the images were too blurred to see, but Marco could pick out some unimportant details, even spotting the visage of a young, blonde haired girl who looked very familiar... but he couldn't quite place the face. The vortex abruptly ended and Marco was spat out onto a hard stone floor.

* * *

 **A/N: Small credit goes to Alpharius1701 for providing creative inspiration for this chapter. His contribution had only a small role here but it may or may not come back later ;)**

 **Alpharius1701 wrote "Right in Front of You & Right Behind You" which is a very good read and would recommend it to everybody.**


	9. Chapter 8: Trial

Marco's head was ringing, he supposed it was because he had just hit a hard stone floor at quite a velocity. Marco took a moment to collect himself before even attempting to get up, it was quite the ordeal, witnessing his entire life flash before him. After a moment or two, Marco stood up, still groggy from his fall. He quickly checked to make sure that no bones were broken or that anything he had brought with him had somehow gone missing while he was falling. Satisfied that everything was accounted for, Marco took in his surroundings – he was in a cubic stone room with no windows or doors. It was somehow still lit by some unseen light source and Marco assumed it was probably magic of some description. If this was supposed to be the "Sanctuary of the Ancients", Marco was not very impressed.

Just as Marco was thinking that there must be more to this room, a ghostly hooded figure stepped through the wall and into Marco's field of view. He took a step back from it – Marco had no idea what this thing was or how hostile it might turn out to be. The figure wore long flowing robes and hovered about half a meter off of the ground. There was nothing but darkness where the face was supposed to be. It was hard to tell if the being actually had a face and the darkness was just a shadow created by the hood it was wearing. The figure floated a couple of meters in front of Marco, watching him for a moment – perhaps examining him for a weakness – before a booming voice emanated from it.

"Greeting Applicant. You have succeeded in reaching the entrance to the Sanctuary of the Ancients."

"Oh! Great! So can you help me find this focussing crystal that I need to get through the bar-" Marco stumbled over his words before he was interrupted by the figure.

"SILENCE!" The figure boomed. "Only the Ancients themselves can pass into the sanctuary. All other Applicants must prove themselves to be worthy."

"What do you mean by worthy?"

"A trial must be completed by any Applicant who is not a member of the Order."

"What kind of trial?"

"All kinds! The trial will test your body, mind and soul."

"What will I have to do to complete the trial?"

"Each trial is different. Each requires different skills to complete. If one trial is failed then the Applicant will be refused access to the Sanctuary. Applicants who choose not to participate in the trials will be sent back to the dimension they accessed the Sanctuary from. You must make a choice now Applicant, will you test yourself against the trial?"

"Yes I'm ready for whatever you've got."

The figure waved his arm and gestured to a nondescript part of the room and a large red portal opened at it's command.

"The first is the Trial of the Body. Be prepared Applicant."

Then the figure fell silent and floated in it's corner of the room, presumably waiting for Marco to go through the portal and start the trial. Marco stood in thought for a moment, considering what a "Trial of the Body" could possibly entail. It was almost certainly going to involve something physical and test the limits of his strength. It's not like he really had a choice though, he needed to pass this trial for Star's sake. After mustering one last bout of confidence, Marco stepped through the swirling red portal.

* * *

The portal opened up into some kind of circular arena. It looked very similar to a colosseum from ancient Roman times with plenty of room for people to sit and watch the spectacle – not that there was anyone there. The sky above was beautiful. It was like a normal night sky on Earth, but there were perhaps double, if not triple, the amount of stars suspended in the inky blackness. Marco wondered if the sky was created artificially by the Ancients or if the stars really were just that beautiful. Much like the room that Marco had come from, the arena had no exits and so would be trapped here until the trial was complete. Marco drew his sword, ready for the trial to begin

As soon as he drew his sword, the stands of the colosseum lit up with hundreds of ghostly hooded figures all eagerly looking upon him. Then one more figure appeared, this time adorned in armour and wielding a large broadsword. It made some angry noises that could possibly be interpreted as some sort of war cry, but Marco ignored it, he knew that tactics like that were only intended to unsettle and cause him to make a mistake. Marco dropped into a combat stance and made sure to keep a distance between him and his opponent – he didn't know anything about his opponent here and so it was wise to let him make the first move. The ghostly figure opposite him had no such caution and simply charged at Marco, screaming and sword waving in the air. Marco stepped to the right to dodge the figure's attack, span on the spot and drew his sword up along the back of the figure's leg to cross the entire length of it's body. With one well placed strike, the ghostly figure had been brought to it's knees and consequently vanished into smoke, defeated.

Marco stood up and faced the crowd, surely it couldn't have been that easy. As if responding to his premature celebration, 3 more ghostly gladiators appeared in front of him, each wielding a different weapon. One armed with a scythe charged at Marco, slashing wildly. Marco jumped backwards to avoid the ghostly blade, then felt a sharp pain on his right shoulder. Looking up, Marco realised that one of the other gladiators was throwing knives at him and it seemed as though one of those had grazed his shoulder. Marco knew that his best bet of winning here was to deal with the ranged attacker first, he needed to be able to concentrate without the danger of a knife piercing his heart. With this in mind, Marco circled around the scythe wielder and charged directly for the knife thrower. The ghostly gladiator responded by simply increasing the quantity of knives he was throwing at Marco. He was doing his best to avoid as many of the knives as possible, but still a couple managed to land a few glancing blows onto Marco, giving him a few more minor cuts on his arms and legs. When he was in range Marco brought down on his opponent, the sword easily slicing through the ghostly gladiator, vanquishing it from the arena.

Marco examined the two opponents that were left in the arena. The gladiator which wielded a scythe was off to his right and the other off to his left wielded a shield and short sword. The one on the left started bashing it's weapons together and the other began spinning it's scythe over it's head. Marco decided that he needed to get the one on his right first and moved to engage it. With the extra reach that the scythe allowed his opponent, Marco needed to be careful and wait for his opening before he went in for the finishing blow. Just as Marco expected, the gladiator lunged forward and tried to bring the scythe down on top of his head. It only took a simple sidestep to avoid and it allowed Marco to follow up with a well placed strike in the now exposed flank of his opponent. Marco concentrated on his last target who was still bashing his sword against his shield. This time he would have to move towards his opponent, instead of waiting for him to make a mistake. Marco sprinted towards the target, sword raised ready to strike; the opponent raised his shield in response. Marco smiled, this is exactly what he was hoping for. Marco kept running until he reached the opponent then placed his right foot on the shield and used it as a springboard to jump over the gladiator. Marco performed a somersault in the air and landed just behind his opponent, giving him a free shot at his back. With the positional advantage, Marco dispatched the final target with ease and wondered how many more of these he would have to beat in order to finish the trial.

It didn't take long for Marco's next opponent to appear. There was only one, but it was enormous. Easily two storeys tall, a giant ghostly ogre wielding a large club had appeared in the arena with him. Marco wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do against an enemy of that size, he doubted that he was be able to dodge it's attacks long enough to tire it out. Marco would need to locate and exploit a weak point in order to bring this behemoth down.

The giant ogre roared at Marco and tried to bring it's giant down on his head. Fortunately, the size of the ogre made it's movements very slow and easy to dodge. The club came crashing down next to Marco and carved out a crater in the ground. Marco examined the ogre, looking for a suitable place to strike and his eyes settled on the creatures ankles: sufficient damage there could bring the creature to it's knees. Marco waited for the beast to try and hit him with the club again, that would give him the most time. The ogre brought the club down again and Marco deftly dodged it and dashed towards the creature's ankles, sword held at the ready. Once Marco reached the left ankle, he proceeded to hack and slash as much as he could, to put in as much damage as possible before the ogre could react to his presence. Marco clearly managed to inflict a considerable amount of damage, because the ogre roared in pain and brought his left foot up, high over Marco's head and then brought it crashing down in an attempt to crush him. Marco rolled towards the right foot to avoid the stomping of the ogre and continue his assault on the creature's ankles. After a few more slashes from Marco's sword, the ogre came crashing to the ground, landing face first. Marco was not going to waste the opportunity and jumped onto the ogre's back and ran along towards it's neck. Marco brought his sword down as hard as he could physically manage and the sword pierced the ghostly flesh and ran straight through the neck of the beast.

A loud grunt sounded throughout the arena and the ghostly form of the ogre faded away into smoke. Marco landed on his feet and looked up at the crowd, most of whom had also faded away. There was only one figure left standing, who made it's way down to the arena and spoke.

"The Applicant has passed the Trial of the Body and has completed one third of the trials necessary to enter the sanctuary."

The ghostly figure then gestured to his left and a swirling orange portal appeared.

"Now the Applicant must pass the Trial of the Mind."

Marco took a breath, and stepped through the portal.

* * *

Marco had again arrived in a small room. There was an empty brazier in the middle and windows on the walls, but no doors, it looked like Marco would be trapped in here until he finished whatever the Ancients had in store for him. Marco looked out of the window to see beautiful nebulae of all different colours moving past the room, creating beautiful patterns. Just as Marco was admiring the view, he heard a voice behind him.

"Greetings Applicant, welcome to the Trial of the Mind." The voice spoke.

Marco turned around to see who was addressing him, but no one was there although the brazier now housed a large blue flame.

"Uh hello?" Marco called out.

"The trial will consist of five questions. If the Applicant answers incorrectly four times, the trial will be over and the Applicant will fail." The blue flame pulsed a little brighter every time the voice spoke.

"Uh, Okay. What are the questions?" Marco asked, eager to complete the trial.

"Your first question is this: What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left?"

Marco smirked. _Riddles?_ To make it even better he had heard this one before and knew the answer.

"Your left hand." Marco responded.

The voice paused for a moment before responding.

"Correct." There was a small amount of resentment in the reply, as if the voice wanted Marco to fail.

"The second question: Many have heard me, but no one has seen me, and I will not speak back until spoken to. What am I?"

Marco thought for a moment; he hadn't heard this one and was unsure of the answer, he had to be careful not to guess wrongly.

"My conscience." Marco said with confidence.

"That answer is incorrect. The Applicant now has three wrong answers remaining."

Marco silently cursed himself. _What could it be? Heard but not seen. Only speaks when spoken to._ Marco pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. Then an idea came to him.

"An echo?" Marco asked, a little unsure this time.

"Correct." Marco did an internal jump for joy when the voice said this. "The third question: This five letter word become shorter when you add two letters to it. What is the word?"

This one was also easy for Marco to answer... it was written in the question.

"The word is short."

"Correct." The voice responded. "The fourth question: We hurt without moving. We poison without touching. We bear the truth and the lies. We are not to be judged by our size. What am I?"

"Is it possible to get a hint?"

"Incorrect. Two wrong answers remaining."

Marco managed to catch himself before he responded to that, he couldn't afford another wrong answer. _Think Marco._ The answer had to be rattling around inside his head somewhere.

"Words?" Marco said, still a little unsure in himself.

"Correct. The fifth question is as follows. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires. The second is full of assassins with sharp knives. The third has lions who haven't been fed for years. Which room is the safest for the murderer to choose?"

The answer seemed obvious to Marco, it had to be the second room. The other two rooms would kill the murderer no matter what, maybe in the second room the murderer could barter for his life. Marco internally debated for a moment longer before giving his answer.

"The second room."

"Incorrect. One wrong answer remaining."

Marco racked his brain. What would the right answer be, if not the second? Both the other two rooms seemed incorrect to him. Maybe it was a trick question and the answer wasn't any of the three rooms that were offered. Marco couldn't risk getting another incorrect answer, too much was riding on this. Marco recapped the riddle in his head, maybe there was a clue somewhere that he had missed the first time around.

"Um... the third room? The lions will have died of starvation."

"Correct." Marco breathed a sigh of relief. It was over, there was only one part of the Trial remaining, Star was so close he could almost touch her.

"The Applicant has completed the Trial of the Mind. One trial remains."

Then the flame extinguished itself and and a blue portal opened a little way behind the brazier. Marco eagerly made his way towards the portal, with two of the three trials down, all that remained now was the "Trial of the Soul" and there was no way he would let that stop him. Marco passed through the portal with a new determination burning within him.

* * *

This time the portal opened into a very cold, very narrow stone passageway. Marco looked upwards to find the ceiling, but only found it to be shrouded in mist. He looked along the passage but couldn't see the end, and behind him was only a stone wall.

"Welcome, Applicant, to the Trial of the Soul." A mysterious female voice was speaking to Marco, "You will only be able to pass onwards if you are pure of intention. Here, you will be able to hide nothing. Your salvation awaits at the end of the passageway."

Marco didn't need any more of an invitation and began moving quickly down the dark passageway, taking care to not catch his foot on any rogue outcroppings of rock, lest he might trip. It only took him ten minutes to reach the end of the passage where he was brought face to face with a translucent shimmering barrier. Marco was a little unsure on how to proceed from here, but fortunately the voice spoke up to explain the situation to him.

"This is the veil. Anyone with impure intentions will be prevented from crossing the threshold. If you can pass through the veil unharmed, you will have passed the Trial of the Soul and will be granted access into the sanctuary.

Marco wasted no time, he knew that he was only here to save Star, what could be purer than that?Marco reached out his hand and pressed it against the barrier. To his surprise, it didn't let him through immediately as he had thought it would. Marco became concerned and pressed harder against the barrier. He thought that he saw a small ripple of darkness emanate from where his hand was pressing against the barrier, but ignored it, assuming that it was probably just his imagination. Marco put aside everything else in his mind and focussed on the one reason that he was doing this. He was doing it for Star, thoughts of her flooded his mind and the barrier almost instantly gave way for Marco to stumble through to the other side.

"Congratulations Applicant. You have passed the Trial of the Soul and will be granted access to the sanctuary of the Ancients." Once the voice had finished talking, a brilliant white portal opened in front of Marco, who took it without hesitation.

* * *

The portal ejected Marco out onto a hard marble floor. Marco looked on in awe at the large room he had found himself in. There were stone walls with golden braziers mounted on them to give the room a warm glow. The ceiling was very high and was adorned with intricate patterns, which most probably depicted events that were important to the Ancients. The room was also full of display cases housing various artefacts collected by the Ancients. As Marco was appreciating the beautiful architecture the ghostly form that had initiated the trial formed in front of him.

"Greeting Applicant," it spoke, "you have passed the trial and been granted access to the Sanctuary of the Ancients. All the knowledge stored here is available for your use, although it is forbidden to take anything of it from the Sanctuary."

"I was wondering if you could help me out?"

"I am at your service Applicant." The ghost bowed deeply.

"I am looking for a kind of focussing crystal that is mentioned in this journal." Marco said as he offered Penticus' journal to the ghost. The ghost made no move to take it though, probably because he was incorporeal.

"The deposit of focussing crystal is located at the back of the Sanctuary. Please follow me Applicant."

The ghost then floated off down the hall and Marco followed at his request. As Marco passed by the variety of different display cases, he couldn't help but look at the things that were inside. There were all sorts of various tools all with different purposes and designs. There were a variety of animal fossils that didn't look even remotely close to anything you might find on earth. There was an assortment of implements that Marco could only assume to be weapons of some description, given the long sharp edges, but Marco how no idea how anyone would use them in actual combat, their shape made it look like they would just get in the way if anyone tried to actually use them.

At last Marco and the ghost arrived in front of a large wooden door which was at the end of the great hall. The ghost made an opening gesture with his hands and the door swung open revealing an enormous crystal deposit. Once the door had opened, the ghostly figure disappeared, having completed its job. Marco wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do now, the crystal was far too big for him to move. Marco grabbed a piece that was jutting out from the rest of the rock and pulled. To his great surprise, the crystal in his had separated from the rest perfectly.

Almost as soon as the crystal has been wrested from its resting place Marco felt a small surge of something that he could only describe as darkness. This was then followed by a rush of emotions, emotions that didn't belong to him and Marco nearly doubled over from the intensity of them. Marco could feel the presence of someone very familiar, someone that he missed very dearly.

* * *

 **A/N: As you may or may not know, I usually finish these chapters a week before I publish them here. There are a few reasons for this, but the point is that I haven't yet finished next weeks chapter. This means that it is unlikely there will be an update next week and so I wanted to apologise in advance to anyone who has taken the time to read my story.**


	10. Chapter 9: Deja Vu

Star gasped as she woke up, she was in her bed, and judging by the light streaming in through the window it was around midday. Star sat up and looked around to find that she was all alone and so she took a moment to collect her thoughts, she knew that this was a dream and none of this was real, or maybe this _was_ real and she had just woken up from the dream. Star ran through everything in her head again, from the fight with Marco in the gardens to waking up in Kasula's dimension. _Okay so, I was pulled through a black portal in the gardens of the castle by Kasula and was placed in her dimension on that weird golden slab. That must have been when Kasula trapped me in the dream world the first time. Wait, was it a dream world? Or did I wake up from the dream? No, definitely a dream, everything was weird there, definitely not real. Then I woke up in Kasula's dimension and she told me her entire plan. Then she touched my forehead and I woke up here, back in Mewni. Oh wait no, fake Mewni, this must still be the dream... right?_ Star was having a back and forth conversation with herself, trying to figure out which reality wasn't really examined her surroundings again, it all seemed pretty real to her, how was she supposed to know which was the real one? _This one has to be fake, everything is far too nice here, no way it's real._

Marco came into the room while Star was still trying to separate the fake memories from the real ones.

"Oh, Star! You're up! Are you feeling ok? You took quite the fall yesterday." Marco asked, concerned.

"Huh, what?" Star wasn't really paying attention, she was still concerned that she could be living in a dream.

"Yesterday... when you collapsed." Marco continued before putting his hand on Star's cheek and pulling her head around to face him. "You sure you're okay?" Marco was looking deep into her eyes now and Star blushed a little in response.

"I'm not really sure Marco, I have a feeling this may not be real." she said looking at him completely seriously.

"What do you mean not real?" Marco asked, a fleeting look of concern crossing his face.

"There was this evil lady that kept putting me into a dream... she wanted to take my powers." Star continued.

"Sounds like you had quite the dream Star, but if there really were an evil woman putting you into a dream world, don't you think I would notice."

"Shhhhhhhh Marco, you are not helping." Star said as she placed a finger on Marco's lips to prevent him from speaking.

"Okay then, you take all the time you need." Marco said as he left Star alone on the bed.

Marco did have a point though, he would have noticed if someone had abducted her. He would likely have stopped at nothing to find her, maybe this was the real world after all.

* * *

Star laid in bed for a minute or two longer before getting up and starting to get ready; the nation had already been without it's queen for a day, she didn't want to neglect her duties any more. Star quickly made her way through the corridors of Butterfly castle and headed towards her office. On the way, Star was noticed by many different members of staff and was asked if she was okay more times than she cared to count. It did make sense, Star knew that the news of her blackout would have travelled through the castle like wildfire and would be surprised if anyone in the castle didn't know about it.

Star had taken a route that went past the gardens, there were plenty of windows on the way that allowed her to enjoy the view. Star couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she had a feeling that something bad had happened in the gardens very recently and her morbid curiosity kept drawing her back here.

Star tried not to dawdle and hurried off towards her office. Upon entering, she found Marco at her desk, hard at work, sorting through various pieces of paper. Marco looked up and was surprised to see Star standing in the doorway.

"Star! I thought that you were going to rest a little longer?"

Star shrugged. "I was feeling better. Thought that I could come and help you. It is my kingdom after all."

Marco smiled and pulled up a second chair to the desk and gestured for Star to join him.

"Your company is always welcome."

The King and Queen sat in Star's office and worked through the remaining paperwork for the rest of the day. There was surprisingly little work to be completed. Normally there would be disputes and problems to deal with but it seemed as if she was just signing documents that would allow for trade between other kingdoms and approving gold to be spent on various festivals which would take place throughout the year.

* * *

Once the work was complete, Marco took Star by the hand and led her out of the room and down the corridor.

"Where are we going?" Star asked through giggles of excitement, but Marco did not respond save for smiling back at her. The royal couple almost exactly retraced the steps that Star had taken earlier until they arrived at the gardens. It had already turned night and the Mewnian sky was lit up with countless stars. Marco stopped in the middle of the garden.

"Marco, what are we doing here?"

"I just thought I would treat my wife to a romantic evening after she has had a tough couple of days." Marco said as he pulled her closer to him. Star giggled and returned his embrace before leaning in to kiss him lightly. As they broke apart, slow music began softly playing throughout the gardens. Marco then led Star in a slow dance and Star rested her head on his shoulder as they gently swayed from side to side.

As they moved across the grass, Star caught a glimpse of a section of the wall that looked particularly foreboding. There was nothing visually different about this part of the wall, but for some reason, it meant something to her and it wasn't a happy memory. Star continued to allow herself to be swept along in the dance by Marco, but the thought of the wall wouldn't leave her mind.

All of a sudden Star remembered why that wall held unhappy memories for her, it was where she was taken by Kasula. It was like a dam had burst and all the memories of reality flooded back into her mind, she realised that she was in the dream world and that was like an emotional punch to the gut. Star looked up into Marco's eyes, with tears filling her own.

"What's wrong?" Marco asked.

"You're not real!" Star cried out before she pushed Marco back and ran away.

Star didn't look back, she just ran as fast as she could through the portal – she knew that if she spent any longer with Marco, she would begin to forget that she was in a dream world. Star didn't really have a destination in mind, she was just running through the castle to find somewhere she could be by herself. Star channelled her magic to open a portal, she didn't care where it went, as long as it was away from here. On the other side of the portal, Star found herself on a hill in the middle of a forest, the moonlight shining brightly down on her. It was good enough, Star broke down into tears and crouched on the wet grass trying to keep hold of the memories from her real life. The problem was that she couldn't remember which memories were the real ones any more so she just sat and sobbed quietly, lamenting the life that she feared she may have lost.

* * *

Star sat on the hill for a while longer, basked in the moonlight and looking out upon the quiet forest. There was an air of familiarity about this place, but Star could no longer trust her memories. Just then, she heard the ripping sound of a portal opening behind her. Star didn't bother turning around because she already knew who it would be and she doubted this version of him could help her at all, as much as he might want to. A pair of familiar arms found their way around Star's torso and pulled her into a tight hug.

"How did you find me?" Star asked – she knew that he would have eventually, but it didn't take him as long as she expected.

"I had a feeling you would come here." Came Marco's reply.

"Why? What is so special about here?"

"Do you not remember?" Marco asked, sounding slightly hurt.

"Maybe, but I can't trust my memory right now." Star answered truthfully.

"This is where I proposed." Marco said as he pulled her even closer.

Star let out a small gasp. _Of course it is. I can remember it so well. Everything that I felt in that one instant. I was so happy. Is that memory really fake? Is my life here really fake?_

"None of this is real, Marco." Star explained "You are not real. My memories of this place are not real. Our lives here are not real."

"What do you mean Star? I know I'm real, I can feel it!" Marco protested, but Star simply shrugged him off and stood up.

"I can't really explain it to -"

Star was interrupted by a feeling. A very familiar feeling that she hadn't experienced in a long time or at least what seemed like a long time. It came from a presence she knew well, the presence of Marco. Not the fake one that was stood behind her, but her Marco, from the real world! Star was overcome with emotion and tried to focus on the presence she could feel. It was near enough that she would be able to run to it and so without a second thought, she left her fake husband behind on the grassy hilltop and chased that feeling. As Star ran, she could hear Marco shouting after her, but she didn't care, this would all be over as soon as she reached him. Star was getting closer and closer and the feeling was getting stronger and stronger, just a little more and she would be with him again. Star was running through the trees now, dodging this way and that to avoid the oncoming tree trunks that stood between her and her destination.

It only took a minute or so of running before Star reached a bright white light in the forest and she immediately knew what to do, without hesitating she jumped head first into the light. Her head didn't connect with anything and she was now free falling through empty blank space. Suddenly a scene began forming in front of her. There was a large circular room with an enormous beautiful crystal in the centre of it. Marco was also there with what looked like a piece of the crystal in his hands and wearing torn clothes. Star's emotions took over and she reached out to him, the ends of her fingers just brushing the soft fabric of his hoodie.

"Marco!" Star called out to him.

As if hearing her, Marco turned around to face Star.

Star suddenly woke up, all alone in a completely golden room.

* * *

 **A/N: So I'm back! I said in my last chapter that I would probably be missing a week in my upload schedule and I did exactly that. It was probably a really good thing, because I was getting sorta burnt out on writing but since I took a week off I am back with a renewed vigour! Should be back to normal - releasing a new chapter every week - now and I want to thank everyone for enduring that slight hiatus.**


	11. Chapter 10: Awake

"Marco!"

Marco span around to look behind him, he could have sworn that he had just heard Star's voice.

"Star?" he called out, but the feeling had passed, he thought that maybe it was a sign that he was getting close.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Marco took out his scissors and tried again to open a portal to wherever Star was. He had to hold the portal open with his scissors in order to stop it from collapsing in on itself. Not really sure what to do, he tested the portal with his foot to find that there was still a barrier preventing travel beyond dimensions. Marco examined the crystal in his hand to try and figure out how he was supposed to use it to open the barrier. Nothing was immediately obvious to him, it just looked like a sharp piece of slightly translucent rock. The portal was trying to close and so Marco had to hold it open. He knew he had to do something and so he jabbed the pointy end of the crystal into the dimensional barrier. At the crystal's touch, the barrier began to glow and an energy pulse rippled across the portal's surface and it stopped trying to close itself.

Still unsure, Marco tested the now stable portal in front of him with his left hand, which passed right through without any visible problems. Marco took a moment to ready himself and checked to make sure that he still had everything that he had brought with him – he had no idea what was going to be on the other side and so needed to be prepared for anything. Once he was satisfied that he was ready, Marco took a deep breath, thought about Star, and stepped through the portal.

Marco landed on a hard metallic floor. He was in a small room, or at least he assumed it was small, the lack of lighting made it very hard to tell. The portal closed behind him and Marco knew there was only one way he was going to leave now. There was a strip of light on the floor a few meters ahead of him and he assumed that it was light coming from under a door, the portal must have opened into some sort of storage room. Marco moved towards the light and walked straight into the solid door which swung open upon his touch. Marco was now in a very wide, very tall hallway that appeared to be completely made out of gold. He wasn't sure which way he would have to travel in order to find Star, but something was tugging him down the corridor and so he decided to follow that feeling.

* * *

Star had awoken in the same room as before, she could remember it now – everything that had happened. She waited a few moments for Kasula to enter as she had the last time she woke up, but no one came. Perhaps Kasula hadn't noticed that Star was awake this time? Whatever the explanation was, Star wasn't going to wait to find out – channelling some magic into her hand and feet, she broke apart the restraints which were keeping her bound to the slab. Star was surprised, that hadn't worked the last time, but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth and leapt off of the slab and made a move for the door. The door was gold and featureless and Star didn't know how she was supposed to get it to open. Trying the only thing she could think of, she pushed with all her weight on the door, trying to force it open.

The door did not budge, but it did glow very slightly around where her palms were pressed against it. Then without making a sound, it slid open from right to left, as if by magic. Star, of course, didn't waste any time and bounded out into the corridor and hurried down the first flight of steps she could find. Star was about half way down a staircase when she felt something. Her heart did a small jump for joy inside of her chest: she could feel that Marco had somehow made his way here. Star now had a direction to be heading as the bond between them pulled her along through the corridor, and she increased her pace significantly.

* * *

As Marco continued down the golden corridors the feeling was getting stronger and he could definitely ascribe it to Star's presence. Marco moved more quickly, darting this way and that through the corridors, eager to find her after everything that had happened.

Along the way, Marco found himself on a catwalk above a large room. The room was filled with thousands upon thousands of golden clad soldiers. They all had long grey faces and they all were looking forwards and were standing at attention. At first, Marco made his movements slowly, attempting to sneak past the soldiers just below him, but it soon became clear that they had no interest in what Marco was doing or anything else for that matter, every single one of them continued looking forward solemnly, Marco wasn't even sure any of them were blinking. Marco ignored the room and sprinted along the rest of the catwalk and out, back into the corridors of the golden compound.

The architecture of this dimension was just as Penticus had described in his journal, everything was made of gold. The journal did not do an adequate job of conveying how enormous it was – it looked as though it had been built for someone the size of a small building. If it wasn't for the normal sized doors and the soldiers Marco had just seen, he would have assumed that this dimension was populated with only giants. As Marco raced ever onwards towards where he could sense Star, he couldn't help but wonder whether the walls really were made of gold or if it was just a gold coloured metal.

It was getting stronger now, the feeling of Star's presence, he had to be close. Would she be locked in one of the rooms or just out, running around the compound? From what Penticus had said in his journal, he had been able to freely wander the compound, but he had come here of his own accord, Star was forcibly taken. It didn't matter now, the magical bond was pulling him towards her, sooner or later he would find out. Marco turned one last corner and stopped at the entrance to a very large, very open courtyard. He looked across to the other side and his heart practically leapt out of his chest.

* * *

Star was flat out sprinting down corridors now, she was aching to find Marco and leap into his arms once more. Her entire being missed him and was leading her directly to the reward she sought. Star wouldn't wait and look at what was happening around her, she was far too impatient – she wouldn't stop until she found him, her Marco.

Star rounded a few more corners before arriving at the entrance to a very large and very open courtyard. Marco had to be here somewhere, she could feel it. Her light blue eyes scanned the courtyard, looking for him, and then they happened across a very familiar flash of red that could only have meant one thing and her emotions caught in her throat.

* * *

Neither really knew what to do, they hadn't expected to have gotten this far without something trying to stop them. Here they were, stood on opposite sides of the courtyard, only a couple hundred meters away from each other. A singular tear formed in Star's right eye and she ran towards Marco as fast as she could, her dress trailing behind her as Marco did the same.

Marco had also begun to cry as he raced towards her, the sudden influx of emotions was too much for him to handle. Marco had longer legs than Star and so could run faster than her.

"Marco!" she called out.  
"Star!" he called out.

Once Star was close enough, she leapt at him to close the last couple of meters, eyes closed to hold back the torrent of tears. Marco managed to drop his sword in enough time to catch Star in his open arms and pull her close for a tight hug.

"Marco, Marco, Marco, Marco, Marco..." Marco could hear Star calling his name softly into his shoulder in between sobs.

"It's okay Star, I'm here for you, your lifeline." Marco whispered into her ear as he softly stroked her golden hair. Star removed her face from the crook in Marco's neck where it was nestled and looked at him: his clothes were torn and his face and hands were all scratched up, he was actually bleeding in some places. Star wondered for a moment what Marco had to go through to reach her all the way out here, before deciding that all that mattered now was that he was here with her.

When Star had pulled back, Marco could finally get a good look at her face. Her blue eyes were shining behind the loose locks of hair that were covering her face and mixing with the tears which were strewn across her cheeks. Bags had started to form under her eyes and Marco began to wonder what Star had been put through whilst she was here. Despite her dishevelled state, Star had never looked more beautiful to him and he had never been happier to be here with her. Marco brushed some of the wet strands of hair from her cheeks and Star's hands found their way up to the back of Marco's head, pulling him in for a desperate kiss.

Although it had really only been a couple of days, it had seemed like much longer to them and they were both craving the intimacy they had been lacking. All of their unfulfilled desires that had built up were now being released in one single passionate moment. Time seemed to stop for them, rendering them unaware of how long they were pressed against each other. When they had finally finished, they both had to take a moment to catch their breath.

"I.. I missed you.." Marco said weakly.

Star smiled and cupped his cheek in her right hand.

Before she could respond the ground a couple meters away from erupted into a pillar of black flames and Kasula emerged from it with a nasty looking grin plastered across her face. Wordlessly, she stretched her right arm out, palm facing upwards and then began to glow with a dark fiery aura. The small piece of crystal that was nestled in Marco's pocket flew out and towards Kasula's open hand. She held the crystal in between her thumb and middle finger and turned it around, examining it carefully.

"Thank you Mr Diaz, you performed admirably." Kasula said with a smirk.

Kasula channelled her magic through the crystal, causing it change from a translucent white to an inky black.

Marco's eyes widened as he connected the dots and realised that Kasula must have been the one that took Star away from him. He lost control, he could no longer think straight, rage completely consumed him. The woman stood in front of him was responsible for all the suffering that Marco had endured over the past few days. Worse than that , she was responsible for all the suffering that _Star_ had been through the past few days. Overcome with rage, Marco charged straight at Kasula, throwing all caution to the wind.

Kasula lifted her left hand and pointed threateningly at the man that was now charging at her, but he didn't seem fazed and continued onwards. As soon as Marco came close enough, Kasula tapped him with her forefinger, causing a loud boom to sound and a pulse of dark fiery aura emanated from her finger. Marco was consequently knocked far to left and landed with a resounding thud.

"Marco!" A terrified Star sprinted to the incapacitated Marco.

Kasula snapped her fingers and a large pyramid shaped machine with a small receptacle rose out of the ground. She placed the blackened crystal into the receptacle and the machine jumped into life. Loud whirring of the machine working could be heard from within the pyramid and the black crystal began to glow in its receptacle. The top of the pyramid opened and a pillar of dark energy erupted from it. At the top of the pillar, a large, completely black and circular portal opened high above the golden compound. A small chuckle managed to escape Kasula's lips as cracks formed across the entire sky above them.


	12. Chapter 11: Reveal

A woman with a long head of jet black hair and green pale skin sat in the centre of a small, circular and completely golden room. There were six small windows spaced equally around the circumference of the room and each had a small stream of dark energy emanating from it, ending in the open hands of the mysterious woman. She breathed in and out slowly, concentrating on the power which was flowing into her. The woman opened her eyes.

"It's time" she muttered to herself.

The woman stood up and the flow of energy ceased, leaving the windows free to be observed. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that the windows were not really windows, but small rectangles which looked out into a seemingly endless black void. The woman narrowed her piercing yellow eyes in concentration. She brought her right hand up and extended her index finger to touch the surface of the wall in front of her. At her touch, a large black portal in the shape of an oval with a golden outline appeared on the wall. Now came the challenging part, she opened her hand with the palm facing upwards and a small black fireball appeared there. The woman then morphed the fire in her hands into five tendrils which attached to each of her fingertips. The tendrils then extended and passed across the threshold of the portal. The woman furrowed her brow and moved her fingers around in intricate patterns, attempting to guide the tendrils to their destination on the other side of the portal. Eventually she stopped moving her hand and smiled before yanking her arm backwards and pulling the tendrils out of the portal. Along with the tendrils came an unconscious young woman who appeared to be in her early twenties.

The younger woman had a head of long blonde hair and was wearing a very regal blue dress. Curiously, she also had two pink heart shaped marks on both of her cheeks. The black haired woman let out a small chuckle as the portal on the wall closed.

* * *

Star's eyes widened in horror as she watched the limp body of Marco being thrown through the air and winced when he landed with a thud. Star immediately rushed to his side to check his injuries. Marco was already a little bruised and scratched up before he had arrived here and so Star was having trouble trying to discern the new injuries from the old ones. Fortunately he was breathing and showed all the proper signs of still being alive. Nothing was obviously wrong with him right now, so Star turned to face the bigger and more important threat, Kasula.

Kasula was smiling, which only infuriated Star further. Star exploded into her Butterfly form, she wasn't going to hold anything back. Star hadn't felt like this since she had destroyed Toffee all those years ago. Star stood up and raised all six of her arms focussing all her magic into a single yellow orb which formed in front of her. Once the orb was of sufficient size, Star turned it into a massive beam of unimaginable power that was aimed directly for her enemy. Kasula, however, did not seem too interested in what Star was doing and as the barrage of magic was coming towards her, she simply raised her right hand in response.

Star's attack landed and completely engulfed Kasula. The magical beam required a large amount of power to maintain and so Star could only keep up her attack for 5 to 6 seconds. When she had reached her limit, Star stopped channelling the attack and allowed it to fade away. The magnitude of the attack had kicked up a significant amount of dust which now filled the courtyard. Star waited with bated breath to see if she had done it. The cloud thinned and revealed a black sphere. The sphere dissipated after a few seconds and revealed that Kasula was completely unscathed.

Star was speechless, her attack was completely ineffective, what was she supposed to do now? Star looked back to see Marco still led on the floor and it became clear that she was not going to beat Kasula through brute force – she did not yet know the depths of Kasula's powers and so would have to play defensively. Star took a couple steps back to be closer to Marco, it would be easier for her to protect him and herself at the same time if he was next to her.

Kasula made no move towards them and that only made Star worry even more. Star needed to know more before she could properly attack again and so attempted to probe Kasula's defences with some weaker spells. For every attack, Kasula simply raised her hand and a dark barrier formed in front of her, blocking each and every one of Star's attacks without much effort on her part. Star began to grind her teeth in frustration, even her most powerful spells in her most powerful form couldn't defeat her and she was running out of options.

Star took a breath, she wasn't going to defeat Kasula by overpowering her, that much was clear, she needed to remain calm and attempt to out think her. Kasula took notice of the change in Star's demeanour and lowered her guard.

"Have we finally settled down Miss Butterfly?" Kasula goaded.

Before Star could answer, she felt a stirring on the ground behind her and turned to see that Marco was finally returning to his feet.

"Marco!" She exclaimed, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine Star, blast her with a narwhal and we can go home."

"I already threw everything I had at her and it didn't seem to affect her."

"Mr Diaz, so good of you to join us again." Kasula interrupted them, "Are you going to continue your onslaught Miss Butterfly?"

Star simply stared straight at her, refusing to respond to Kasula's attempts to enrage her. Kasula's eyes quickly flickered to the machine next to her before continuing.

"I suppose you are probably standing there, trying to figure out a way to get around my defences. You are probably thinking that because you have made it this far you have the capability to make it that little bit farther and get back home to your pathetic dimension." Kasula paused for a moment to glare at both Marco and Star.

"Unfortunately, you failed to realise that this whole thing had been laid out for you from the start. I have been planning this moment since long before I took you from Mewni, long before your 'Kingdom' had even been founded. I have been planning this since those damned Ancients trapped me in here. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated my power. The Ancients built the barrier to be resistant to my magic, thinking that would be enough to contain me and it was enough... for a time. After a few centuries of imprisonment, I realised that a large enough build-up of power would be able to temporarily fracture the barrier. You see, I would never be able to maintain a hole in the barrier long enough or big enough to travel through myself and still make a return journey, but I would be able to bring someone here. All I needed was to choose the right someone. I waited millennia for the proper person to present themselves and eventually, fate led me right to you, Star Butterfly."

"Your relationship with Mr Diaz created someone who would have both the capability to make it to my dimension and also the correct motive to be able to pass the trials of the Ancients. By taking you from Mewni, I put into motion the series of events that brought Mr Diaz here and, more importantly, the crystal that he so graciously brought with him."

Star looked back at Marco, but he was just staring at the sky.

"If you were paying attention, you would have been able to see my influence at the most important parts of your journey: finding the journal of Penticus, accessing the Sanctuary of the Ancients, when your intentions were tested in the Trial of the Soul. I have guided you every step of the way and led you here, so you can witness the culmination of a plan that has been millennia in the making."

As soon as Kasula had finished talking, a few hundred of those golden clad, grey faced soldiers which Marco had seen earlier, filed into the courtyard and stood in formation. The machine behind Kasula started making much louder noises and the soldiers began to float upwards towards the large circular portal that had formed in the sky.

"Where does that portal go?" Star asked.

"To where I will complete my revenge. Your entire pathetic universe will be subject to my wrath." Kasula spat back at Star.

More and more soldiers entered the courtyard and left through the portal in the sky, hundreds and hundreds of them made the journey.

"Star!" Marco grabbed her arm to get her attention, "We have to stop her here, we have no idea what kind of havoc she might wreak if we let her leave."

"It's not like I haven't tried Marco, I'm open to suggestions."

"That crystal seems pretty important to her plan, you should try and get it out of that machine. Be careful you don't destroy it though, we need it to get back."

Star nodded, it was a good plan but she was a little nervous to leave Marco out in the open where he would be completely at the mercy of Kasula. Hopefully, removing the crystal from the machine would distract her enough to leave Marco alone.

With as much speed as she could muster Star flew straight at Kasula, causing her to raise a defensive barrier in response. At the last moment, Star veered to right and dived straight for the black crystal which was still sitting in the machine behind Kasula. It took a few seconds for Kasula to realise what Star was doing, but that was all the time that she needed to grab the crystal and pull it out of its receptacle. The black pillar of energy fizzled out of existence and the portal at the top consequently collapsed in on itself slicing the floating soldiers in half and raining blood and gore down onto the courtyard.

Once Star had secured the crystal, she tried to fly away and back to Marco, but Kasula managed to catch on to her leg. Star's wings were beating with all their might, but Kasula gave no ground to the princess. A black pattern starting at Kasula's hand crept it's way up Star's leg causing her to cry out in agony. The sharp pain meant she had to let go of the crystal she was holding and reach for her leg.

Spotting the chance which had just presented itself, Kasula used her powers to throw Star across the courtyard and tried to pick up the crystal which was now lying on the floor. Star wasn't about to let her get the upper hand and began barraging her with any spell that she could think of, putting Kasula back on the defensive.

"ENOUGH" Kasula roared as she created a pulse of energy strong enough to knock both Star and Marco off of their feet. Quick as lightning, Kasula glided across the floor towards where Star lay.

"YOU SHALL NOT STOP ME, PRINCESS!" Kasula seemed genuinely angry which was an emotion Star had not seen her display since arriving and that scared her very deeply.

Kasula placed her hand on Star's forehead and lifted her up by this tenuous connection. The same black pattern which had appeared on Star's legs began to creep across her face.

The pain Star felt in that one instant was completely immeasurable. It felt as though she was being torn apart on the cellular level. No, it went deeper than that; it was as if her soul, her very being was being ripped out through her skull and torn apart in front of her. Star cried out. The pain was far too great for anything else, she wasn't able to form even thought of a counter attack, she just wanted the pain to stop. Star was strong, but this was too much for even her to take, her eyes rolled back in her skull and she fell limp, being held aloft by Kasula's grip alone.

Marco moved to stand up, the blast from Kasula had sent him back a few meters and when he looked to where Kasula and Star were, time slowed down for him. Marco was watching Star, the light of his life, being held in the air, totally helpless and crying out in pain. Whatever Kasula was doing had to be big to stop Star like that. Marco felt a moment of helplessness, unable to really do anything against Kasula or to help Star, this was way out of his league, those two may as well be gods to him. Marco did the only thing he could think of, he threw his sword directly at Kasula's head, hoping to distract her long enough for Star to get free. Marco saw Star go limp and her eyes closed, he feared the worst but didn't dare believe it, he just started running at them.

Before the sword could make contact with her head, Kasula raised her empty hand and created a barrier, which the sword deflected off of and was sent veering into some part of the courtyard. Satisfied with what she had done, she released her grip and allowed Star to fall to the floor.

As Star began her descent, time slowed even more for Marco as he raced to catch her before she hit the floor. His efforts were in vain as he reached her a few moments after her limp body had impacted the floor. Marco could already see the Butterfly form vanishing which revealed multiple wounds which would not have usually been visible. He scooped her form up into his arms and held her tight against his body, willing her to live. Tears streamed down his face and he racked his brain, trying to think of what to do next.

Somewhere in the distance, Kasula had restarted the machine and the transport of soldiers had continued. Marco looked up into the cracked sky one last time and then grabbed his scissors, hoping beyond hope that he was right. As he cut the air a blue portal formed and Marco thanked whatever god was watching over him right now, before hurriedly passing through the portal, with Star's body still in his arms.


	13. Chapter 12: Regroup

Marco stepped out onto the dark grass with Star still in his arms, he looked up at the sky and saw a large black portal a ways off in the distance. Marco turned his attention back to Star and laid her down gently on the grass and pressed his ear against her chest to try and find the sound of her heart beating. Panic started to fill Marco when he realised that he couldn't hear anything.

"No.. no... no... no... no..." Marco was now quietly sobbing, refusing to believe that she had gone, he couldn't have come that close only to fall at the last hurdle.

"Marco?" A voice came from behind him and he turned to see Queen Moon standing about 20 meters from him.

Apparently, the first place Marco had thought of when opening the portal back in Kasula's dimension was the gardens of Butterfly Castle.

"Moon..." Marco gasped half in relief and half in exhaustion, "You have to help her..." he said as he moved to one side so that the Queen could see the limp body which belonged to her daughter.

"Star!?" Moon called out and rushed to where Marco was kneeling on the grass to find that she was pretty badly bruised and unresponsive. "What happened?"

"It's a long story, but she was in a fight against someone and she lost, it was all I could think of to bring her here."

Moon placed two fingers against Star's neck and was silent for a few seconds.

"Is... is she gone?" Marco wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that question.

"No, but she is dying, we might lose her if we don't do something quick." Moon had become deadly serious. "Can you carry her? I need her to be in my office."

Marco didn't need to be told twice, he carefully scooped Star into his arms and hurriedly followed Moon through the corridors and into her office, where he laid her down on the desk, knocking all sorts of important documents falling to the floor. Moon went to a cupboard on the far side of her office and started looking for something. A couple of seconds later and Moon produced a vial of dark green liquid and quickly removed the cap before pouring the contents of it into Star's mouth. The Queen then placed her hand onto Star's chest and generated a blue aura around her fingers and the diamonds on her cheeks began to glow.

"It's done." Moon said and visibly relaxed.

Marco squeezed Star's hand a little, "She hasn't woken up yet..." he said still concerned.

"I've done all I can, it's up to her now." Moon's reassurance did not succeed in dispelling the frown plastered across Marco's face and so she confidently added, "She's very strong Marco, she'll pull through."

Marco didn't let go of her hand.

"So what actually happened to you two? It's been days since we last saw either of you." Moon broke the silence

"Turns out Star was kidnapped by a woman named Kasula from a dimension that exists beyond our universe. I had to use a magic crystal to reach Star, but it turned out that it was all a part of Kasula's plan. Then Star and Kasula had a magical grudge match, which Star lost and left her in this state. Now she..." Marco stopped speaking as he realized the situation they were now in.

"What is it Marco?"

"She has the crystal now, she can pass through the barrier, she can use her armies to wreak havoc across the universe!"

Just then, an out of breath Hekapoo burst through the doors to Moon's office.

"Queen Moon!" She gasped, "We've got a problem, we need you in the meeting room."

Moon looked at Hekapoo and then back at Marco and Star.

"When Star wakes, you need to bring her to me, we will likely need her help."

Marco nodded and watched as Moon and Hekapoo left for the castle's meeting room. He had a feeling he knew what the problem was.

* * *

Moon opened the double doors of the meeting room to see who had congregated. The entire magic high commission (minus Glossaryck), an assortment of the more senior military leaders and, of course, River.

"What are we dealing with?" Moon asked, not wanting to waste any more time. Her daughter had just come home barely clinging to life and this was the last place she wanted to be right now.

"About half a mile from Butterfly castle, a large black portal has opened in the sky." The voice of Omnitraxus boomed through the meeting room and he morphed his shape to show an image of the portal in question.

"Hordes of soldiers have been streaming through and reportedly killing civilians and destroying property to make room for something." Omnitraxus continued, "These portals have been appearing in every dimension and all the soldiers from those portals have been doing the same."

"My Queen," Hekapoo interrupted, "we need a response force."

* * *

Back in Moon's office, Marco was still clutching Star's hand tightly, waiting patiently for her to wake up and save the day, he was not ready to even think about the alternative. It hadn't been that long, there was still time for her to wake up and come back to him. Based on what Hekapoo had said, Kasula had already arrived in Mewni. Marco expected it to take a little longer than that, he wouldn't have thought she would arrive here first. If Star didn't wake up soon, Marco did not rate their chances too highly; Moon may be able to hold her off for a short time, but even Star couldn't best her.

Marco began to think that he should move Star, it was looking less and less likely that they could defeat Kasula the longer that he thought about it, and if Mewni was going to fall, he sure as hell wasn't going to let Kasula take Star with it. He doubted there was anywhere he could take her that Kasula wasn't capable of reaching, but there might be somewhere that she would never think to look.

As he was considering his plan of escape, he felt Star stir under his touch and she let out a little groan. Marco stood up to examine her: she was completely still save for the small flicker of movement in her hand and her eyes were still closed. Marco thought that maybe it was just his imagination when Star suddenly bolted upright on the spot, eyes wide open and let out a terrible scream.

"Shh.. Shh.. Shh.. Shh .. Shh" Marco tried to calm her down. "It's okay, I'm here."

"M-Marco?" Star's eyes were still open wide in shock and she was looking around the room in fear. "Where are we? What happened?" A sharp intake of breath from Star and she looked straight at Marco, "Where's Kasula?"

"We are back in Butterfly Castle, I brought you here with my scissors after you collapsed. Your mom healed you with some weird green liquid and is currently in the meeting room with what I assume to be the Magic High Commission."

"I need to talk to my Mom, now." Star said with an urgency as she clumsily climbed off of the table; she was still a little weak from what Kasula had done earlier.

"S-Star, Kasula's here. On Mewni. I saw the portal."

"Well, all the more reason to find Mom as fast as possible." Star said as she hurried out of the room with Marco in tow.

A few meters down the hall and Marco stepped in front of Star, halting her advance.

"Star, I know what you're planning, but you can't fight Kasula again, she nearly killed you!"

"I need to fight her Marco, you said yourself that she is on Mewni. These are my people and I'm going to defend them." Star said bluntly.

Marco's head fell.

"Star... I-I can't lose you." He muttered very quietly.

Star's gaze softened - she realized that Marco's request was not out of disregard for the people of Mewni, but rather out of concern for her.

"We're not going to be alone this time Marco, my Mom is here, and we have the entire backing of the Kingdom behind us. Last time we were fighting on Kasula's turf, this time, she'll be fighting on ours."

Marco didn't seem convinced, so Star took his hand in hers and placed a soft kiss on his cheek before leading him down the corridor towards the meeting room.

* * *

"That'll have to do for a first response until we can gather more of -" Moon was interrupted mid sentence as Star Butterfly came crashing through the entrance with Marco in tow.

"Mom, whatever you're planning, it's not going to work!" Star exclaimed.

"Star!? What are you... you are supposed to be resting!" Moon chastised, "You suffered serious injuries."

"You don't know what we're up against, you haven't seen what she can do!" Star pleaded.

"Star. I have been successfully protecting this Kingdom since before you were born! One more invader shan't be a problem."

"Mom, listen to me. The only way we are going to match her power is to fight together. Kasula is far too powerful for any of us to fight alone. When we fought in her dimension, I couldn't even touch her. She was toying with me, as soon as I touched that crystal and gained even the slightest advantage, she put me down. This is no joke. Anything you send at her that isn't everything we have is going to get destroyed."

"Star, it's too late, I've already sent a response force."

Star's mouth dropped in horror.

"You've sent them to their deaths." Star whispered.

"We don't know for sure that Kasula is there, portals are opening in every dimension, we sent a scouting force so that we would have a better idea about what is happening out there." Moon said trying to reassure her daughter and also convince herself that she had made the right decision.

As Moon finished speaking a raven flew in through the window of the meeting room and landed on the table – it had a message attached to it's leg. Hekapoo removed the message from the bird and read it.

"It's from one of the scouts we sent out..." Hekapoo went silent for a moment. "It says that they're all dead, Kasula got to them all except one. He's sending this message to tell us that she's coming for the castle. There was nothing they could do, they couldn't even escape her."

Hekapoo looked up from the message and the entire room was silent. Star was the first one to speak.

"If Kasula's coming here, we can be ready for her. We'll need to fight her together to have a chance of winning."

Booming noises and screaming could be heard from outside the castle. Moon, Star, Marco and the rest of the Magic High Commission rushed to the balcony outside the room to see what was happening. Smoke was rising in the distance and there was people running in the streets, away from the wave of destruction.

From their vantage point, they could just about see hundreds upon hundreds of the golden soldiers that Marco had seen in Kasula's dimension, but Kasula herself was still no where to be seen. Star's grip tightened on the balustrade, fighting the urge to go down there and help the people, knowing that there was a much greater threat to come.

Eventually, the path of destruction reached the front gate of the Butterfly Castle. The gate was enormous, it rivalled even the size of the one at the Grand Library of Dimensional Theory. It was thick and imposing and any normal person would have thought that it was impenetrable, but Marco and Star knew first hand what was coming, and the gate would not be enough to hold her.

10 seconds of gruelling silence passed, as the assembled members of the Mewni leadership waited for something to happen. All of a sudden a black pattern similar to the one Star and Marco had seen in Kasula's dimension crept across the surface of the door. Once the gate had been forty percent covered by the pattern a loud cracking sound was heard and the gate exploded inwards, sending massive shards of wood and metal flying towards the castle. In place of the gate, stood Kasula, a smile on her face and surrounded by hundreds of golden clad soldiers, who rushed in through what remained of the gate.


	14. Chapter 13: Battle

"Star!" Moon called as she morphed into her butterfly form and extended all six of her arms.

Star responded by similarly erupting into her butterfly form.

"We need a plan." Moon said.

"There's no time!" Star responded and flew off of the balcony they were stood upon and down towards the oncoming horde of golden soldiers.

"Star!" Moon called after her before quickly following suit.

Marco looked at the scene before him, mouth agape and paralysed by fear. The Mewni royal guard had already engaged Kasula's forces on the ground and the casualties were starting to rack up. Marco snapped out of his stupor when someone shook his shoulder and he turned to see Hekapoo and a fiery orange portal open behind her.

"You coming Marco? We need you on the ground."

Marco looked around to see that the rest of the magical high commission had already joined the fray on the ground. Marco gulped before nodding and headed through the portal, which Hekapoo closed behind them.

The portal spat them out some distance away from the fighting, presumably so they could get their bearings before charging headlong into battle. Marco wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do now, the fight in Kasula's dimension had really left him shaken, even now he was considering turning tail and running from the battlefield. He then managed to catch sight of Star, flying high over the carnage and dropping large balls of yellow magical fury down onto the helpless soldiers. Marco gripped his sword tighter, if he left her here on her own there was no way he would ever be able to live with himself. It only left him with the one option, he would have to fight.

Marco threw all caution to the wind and charged straight for the centre of the battle, sword held aloft and ready to be brought down upon some unsuspecting enemy. The first of Marco's victims fell quickly as he managed to approach from it's flank and it was unable to block the downward slash from Marco's sword. Now that Marco was up close and personal with these things, he could get a better look at them. They had emotionless grey faces and were clad in shiny golden armour. Each was armed with two blades of light blue energy which emanated from projectors placed on top of their wrists. It didn't look as though Marco would be able to block the attacks from these things and so he would have to be careful not to be hit by them.

Marco had taken a pause but everyone else had not, the battle raged around him as both friend and foe fell victim to the others attacks. The rest of the Magical High Commission was hard at work, dealing with the enemy as fast as they could. Rhombulus was fully crystallizing as many as he could but there were simply too many to make this a viable battle tactic and so he soon switched to shooting smaller fragments of crystal designed to impale the enemy instead. Many of these smaller crystals found their mark and managed to embed themselves deep into the heads of numerous enemies but many more were deflected off of the golden armour they wore.

Omnitraxus had increased his size to that of a small building and was attempting to crush the invaders underneath the incredible force of his enormous fists. This was effective for the most part as any that were caught out by his great lumbering form would be instantly flattened causing the sound of splintering bones to ring across the battlefield. However, in this large form Omnitraxus was too slow to catch many of them and they could fairly easily avoid his massive fists.

It was hard to track Hekapoo as she was constantly portalling to different locations all over the battlefield making sure to catch any stragglers which has somehow made it around the main fray and attempted to flank the defenders. Hekapoo would open and close portals around the attackers to sever limbs and sometimes worse, spraying blood and gore over the walls and floor.

The air was thick with the smell of blood and death and a cacophony of dying screams and snapping bones. Marco wanted to be sick. Even the 16 years he had spent in Hekapoo's dimension would not have prepared him for this, it was horrifying and he wanted nothing more than to take Star and get as far away from it as possible. Unfortunately for Marco, that wasn't an option, he had a job to do and he would be damned if he was going to leave Star in a place like this. So Marco took a deep breath and went to work.

Marco had spent many years training with the very sword he held in his hand and was certainly a master of the blade by now. The lack of heavy armour made Marco quicker than most on the battlefield and so he danced through the waves of enemies, fatally wounding as many as he could without ever straying close enough to their weapons to be hit by them. It would have been almost beautiful if the actions weren't so abhorrent and Marco hated himself a little more for every life he took.

Try as they might, the golden soldiers could not stop Marco; he ducked and dived around their attacks, flawlessly dodging almost every one, with the occasional energy blade only managing to scratch his skin. 'El Choppo' was a blur in his hands and Marco lost count of how many he had slain which sent a sick feeling straight to his stomach. It didn't really matter as hundreds of these things were still pouring out of the portal and streaming into the castle grounds. In a brief moment of respite, Marco looked to the sky to find Star and saw that she and her mother were flying towards Kasula, launching the first of their spells at her.

* * *

Star and Moon flew overhead of the battlefield and towards Kasula. From this height, Star could see everything that was happening and it did not look as though it was heading in a favourable direction. Plenty of Kasula's soldiers were falling at the hands of Mewni's, but there were massively outnumbered. They were still streaming through the portal so it was hard to estimate, but Star thought that even if each of the Mewni guard could kill one hundred golden soldiers a piece it would still not be enough. To put it simply the situation was dire and it was only a matter of time before the castle was overrun. What they needed was a powerful enough blow to Kasula's forces to stop them dead in their tracks and the only real way of accomplishing that was taking out Kasula herself.

"Mom, we need to take down Kasula to have a chance at winning here." Star called out to Moon as she increased her speed and headed directly for the interdimensional interloper.

Moon watched her daughter speed ahead of her into danger and increased her pace to match Star's. Now they were getting closer, Moon could get a good look at Kasula and perhaps try and gauge some of her powers. Kasula was still an unknown quantity and as such, Moon would have to follow Star's lead in the upcoming fight.

Star certainly wasn't going to wait for permission to begin and as soon as she was in range, she started firing any spell that she could think of at Kasula. Unfortunately, Kasula had seen the pair coming and was ready to block the spells Star was firing at her. Moon joined in forcing Kasula to defend from two sides. A dark fiery aura surrounded Kasula and she rose into the air, her arms outstretched and still blocking any attack the Butterfly's were firing at her.

Kasula dropped the barrier that was between her and Star and formed a black tendril which quickly found it's way to the unsuspecting princess and managed to wrap itself around her form. The tendril pulled Star back towards Kasula who opened her palm to catch Star as she rushed towards her. Star was still bound by the tendril and so was helpless to save herself, she remembered the last time that Kasula had managed to touch her - the unbearable agony that she was somehow able to inflict. Star closed her eyes and waited for the pain... but it never came. The tendril loosened it's grip on Star before dissipating completely. Star opened her eyes to see that Moon had flown in at the last second and managed to sever the connection between Kasula and Star with a sword made entirely of light blue energy.

Kasula made a sound that could be described as a low growl as Star was released from the grip of the tendril. This meant that Kasula had to immediately go on the defensive to protect herself from the barrage of spells that the royal pair continued to hurl at her. The presence of Moon was proving to be more troublesome for Kasula than she had anticipated. Kasula decided that she needed to split them up – one on one they would be much easier to deal with. In the air, Moon and Star had the clear advantage, they were much faster and more mobile than her, so Kasula lowered herself back the ground to minimise their superior tactical position.

Star could see that Kasula was trying to bait them down to the ground, but she wasn't going to fight this battle on her terms if she could possibly help it. Unfortunately, Kasula was still in charge of the situation and moved towards the front-line of the battle in search of her prey. Once her sights landed on him, another black tendril extended from her hand towards the boy in red.

"Marco!" Star cried out, but it was too late; the tendril already had him in it's grasp and was pulling him back towards Kasula, 'El Choppo' sent flying from his hands.

Star didn't waste time, she flew directly at Kasula, with the intent to bring her down before she could touch Marco.

"No, Star wait!" Moon called after her, seeing what Kasula was doing.

Kasula waited a few crucial seconds for Star to move within range and then, with a smirk, released the tendril that was holding Marco and brought her hand up to meet Star. A dark barrier formed in-between Kasula and Star and Star was moving too fast to stop herself from colliding with it. Star was knocked far to the side creating the opening that Kasula was waiting for. Quick as lightning, more tendrils made their way to Moon and caught her in their shadowy embrace. Star saw what was happening and tried to get up and protect her mother from the wrath of Kasula, but golden soldiers had appeared in front of her and were trying to hold her to the ground.

Moon fired off spell after spell at Kasula, desperately trying to halt her advance, but nothing could get through her defences. Kasula caught Moon by the neck with her open hand and smiled menacingly. Then, just like before, a black pattern began to creep across Moon's neck and she cried out in pain.

The pattern crept up her chin and began to cross her face and chest. This was taking far too long and these Butterfly's were more of an issue than Kasula wanted to admit. Eyes full of hatred, Kasula poured all of her power into this one attack, showing absolutely no mercy. Moon clawed at Kasula's arm but it was no use, all she could do now was scream in agony.

The pain Moon felt was completely immeasurable, she had never experienced anything like this before and she didn't know how much longer she would be able to withstand it. As the pattern reached her mouth, the butterfly form dissipated but Kasula did not cease her attack, there was genuine bloodlust in her eyes.

Star looked across to Kasula and Moon and knew first-hand what was going on. She blasted a few of the golden soldiers away with her magic and tried to fly towards Kasula, but more soldiers took their place and continued to keep Star occupied, she was unable to help her mother.

The dark pattern was now creeping across Moon's shoulders and nearly reached up to her eyes. Moon was still conscious, but barely, she let out one more terrible scream before closing her eyes and falling limp. Kasula, pleased with what she had done, let out a cackle and tossed Moon's body to the floor, fixing her sights upon Star with eyes full of malevolent glee.

Star watched the body of her mother fall to the ground and her mind went blank. The reality of the situation had just hit her, suddenly and like a truck. The surprise at seeing someone as strong as her mother fall in battle knocked all the air out of her lungs and she started gasping for breath. Small white spots appeared in her vision and these spots grew larger and larger until all Star could see was unending whiteness.

* * *

Marco saw the Queen fall to the ground in an all too familiar fashion. Flashbacks began to cloud his thoughts and he reflexively turned to face Star's position. The princess was still surrounded by many of the golden soldiers, but she had become completely still and was staring directly at the body of Moon. There was a brilliant flash of yellow and all the soldiers that had been surrounding Star were instantly vaporized and carried away on the wind. A tremor was felt on the battlefield and everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment. An eerie silence fell over the scene which was then broken by Kasula.

"So is this your full power Butterfly?" She sneered at Star before using her powers to once again float into the sky and towards the portal which was hanging there.

Star's gaze followed Kasula's ascent and she waited for only a moment or so before following suit and rising to an altitude equal to Kasula's. Star was not herself any more, her eyes had been replaced with yellow four-armed stars that had concave sides. She looked just like she had when she defeated Toffee all those years ago.

Star extended all six of her arms towards Kasula, palms facing towards her and a beam of magical energy fired out of each of her hands. The beams came together to formed a massive blast of yellow magical energy that was aimed directly at Kasula.

The power concentrated in this blast was incredible. As it passed across the battlefield, it instantly incinerated any of the golden soldiers unfortunate enough to stray within fifty metres of it. The grass underneath caught fire and Marco, who was still stood far behind Star, was knocked back a little and had to momentarily shield his eyes from the blinding light.

For the very first time, Kasula looked afraid. This was more than she expected and was not confident in her abilities to stop it. It was too late for her to move now though, she would have to take the blast head on. Kasula aimed one palm at the portal above her and one towards the incoming magical blast. The same dark barrier that had appeared before manifested itself between Kasula and the blast. Her other hand was drawing darkness from the portal into her body. Kasula winced as the magical force struck the barrier, she could feel the outside of her defence beginning to burn away and knew that it was only a matter of time before Star broke through completely.

At the last possible moment, Kasula changed the angle of her barrier very slightly causing Star's attack to be deflected to one side. The beam cut through the landscape like a hot knife through butter. The Kingdom of Mewni was being carved into pieces by Star's attack and countless buildings and structures were being ripped apart in the carnage. The blast eventually dissipated and Kasula looked at the enraged princess fearfully – there was no way she could take another hit like that. Star, however, had her eyes closed and her arms were hanging down by her sides. Worse than that though, she was beginning to fall through the air towards the ground, the last attack had obviously used more energy than she had intended.

Marco had seen the entire series of events unfold and, more importantly, thought he might have just spotted a weakness of Kasula's that he could exploit. As he was beginning to draw together the details of his plan, he noticed that Star was falling out of the sky at an accelerating speed and had her eyes closed. Marco's instincts took over and he sprinted towards where he thought Star would land.

"Star!" He cried out to the falling girl.

Marco thought he could see Star's lips move in response, but from this far away he could never be sure.

"Star!" He cried out again, he was nearly underneath her now.

Star's eyes fluttered open and she immediately started to panic. She opened her wings fully and this slowed her descent somewhat. However, she was still plummeting towards the ground and probably didn't have enough time to stop herself completely. She threw her arms in front of her face and closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable impact with the ground. Instead she felt two cotton clad arms reach out and snatch her from the air before bringing her close and holding her tightly. Star could feel heavy breathing on her face and opened her eyes to see a bedraggled Marco with perhaps the most worried look she had ever seen.

"Star!" He managed to get out through gasping breaths.

Star stood on her own two feet again and looked up towards Kasula, who was now descending to their location, a victorious smile plastered across her face.

"Star, I know how to beat her." Marco said quietly.

Star turned to look at Marco in shock.

The Marco leaned in and whispered something into Star's ear.


	15. Chapter 14: Finish

Star turned back to face Kasula. "You really think that'll work?" she whispered to Marco.

Marco gritted his teeth, "No." He replied honestly, "But we are not going to be able to overpower her. This seems like as good a shot as any."

"I saw it when you hit her with that blast just a second ago. Kasula raised her hand up to the portal and drew some kind of dark energy from it. I reckon that the empty void, the space beyond dimensions is where she gets her power from. It would make sense given that is where she came from. If we can close that portal, we might just be able to sever her connection and suppress her power. " Marco explained.

"But how am I supposed to reach the crystal to close the portal? I'd have still have to get past her." Star protested.

Marco turned around to face the battle that was still raging behind them. "The MHC."

Star looked at Marco, disbelief written across her face. "Marco... the high commission won't be able to stop Kasula, even my mom couldn't do it." As Star said this, her eyes flickered back to the limp body of her mother, still lying on the ground where Kasula had left her.

Marco shook his head, "We don't need to stop her, Star, we just need to slow her down enough for you to get through the portal."

Kasula, who had been watching Star and Marco converse on the ground beneath her, was beginning to get restless; she wasn't going to wait for them to regroup and fight her again, she was going to finish this now. In a dark flash, Kasula moved towards them, arms outstretched, ready to strike.

Star saw this coming and managed to raise a golden barrier just in time. Kasula clawed at the glowing shield, leaving long black scratches on it's surface. With an expulsion of energy, Star created a shock wave that managed to push Kasula back and create more distance between them. Marco opened a portal back to the battlefield and found Hekapoo as quickly as possible. After hastily explaining his plan, Marco returned to Star to find her still barely managing to hold off Kasula's assault.

"Star, the MHC are on their way, hold on!" Marco called out to her. Star was back in her buttlerfly form, but Marco could tell that she was fading fast.

As Star's golden barrier shattered into pieces, she was flung back towards Marco who just about managed to catch her before the two of them were sent tumbling to the ground. Kasula cried out in victory and began to walk towards where the two had fallen.

"Finally." Kasula muttered to herself, her jet black hair had been knocked out of place and her body was covered in scratches. Kasula raised her right hand and summoned a ball of black fire, poised to end it all, when a large fiery red portal opened on the ground behind her and the large form of Omitraxxus Prime rose out of it. Kasula turned to face the hulking figure and Ommitraxxus attempted to crush her beneath his enormous fists. Hekapoo emerged from the same fiery red portal soon after and attempted to engage Kasula in combat as best she could.

Now that Kasula had become somewhat occupied, the plan could really begin.

"Here Star," Marco said, turning to Star and brandishing his dimensional scissors, "you'll need these to get out of Kasula's dimension, you will have to use the crystal to get through the barrier the Ancients created."

Star reached out to take the scissors from Marco but a dark tendril beat her to it. The scissors were wrenched out of his hands and flew threw the air to land in Kasula's open palm. Somehow Kasula had fought off the MHC long enough to snatch the scissors before they could be used. She had a furious look on her face and was once again surrounded by a dark fiery aura.

"I've had enough!" she screeched and she closed her fist. A sharp cracking sound could be heard as the structural integrity of the scissors were compromised. Then her fist closed completely and the scissors shattered into pieces which tumbled to the floor. A smile quickly crossed her face before Omnitraxxus attempted to restrain her again with his massive form.

Star turned to face Marco who was looking on in horror. The scissors were instrumental to his plan, there was no way they would be able to stop Kasula and get back for her dimension now. He faced Star, a helpless look on his face, hoping that she would come up with some solution that he wasn't seeing. Star had a familiar look on her face, it was the look she put on whenever she had done something wrong, whenever she was apologising for something.

"Star?" He asked, under his breath, scared that his fears would be realised.

Star didn't respond but instead looked up towards the portal in the sky and then to Kasula who was still fighting the magical high commission. She bit her bottom lip, coming to a decision, maybe the hardest of her entire life. She strengthened her resolve and turned to face Marco again, fear was still written all across his face. There was only one move left.

Star leaned in and kissed Marco. The kiss was warm and loving, filled with affection and passion, but it was also fleeting and filled with sorrow, Star was saying goodbye. Tears began to form in Star's eyes as she broke the kiss.

"I love you, Marco Diaz." Star said with finality. Not giving him any time to respond, Star flew up and away, towards the dark swirling portal which hung in the sky. Star ignored the screaming protests from Kasula and didn't look back, trusting that Omnitraxxus and Hekapoo would be able to contain her.

Marco stood alone, watching Star fly to the portal and eventually disappear through it. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks, he knew what this meant and he knew that it was the only move they had left to make but that didn't mean that he had to like it.

"Star!" He cried after her weakly, desperately willing her to come back to him but knowing that she never would, this was something that she had to do.

* * *

Star continued flying upwards until she passed through the large portal that Kasula had created with her machine. On the other side the courtyard looked exactly the same as the last time she had seen it, a shudder ran through her body has she relived the pain. The machine was sitting exactly where she had expected it to be but it was surrounded by those golden clad soldiers. They had not reacted to her presence however and they showed no intention of stopping her when she moved closer.

Star thought nothing of it and moved towards the machine; she would need to remove the crystal in order to close the portal. Star flew over the heads of the soldiers, who still made no move to stop her, and landed directly in front of the receptacle that housed the mysterious crystal. She reached out her hand and closed her fist around the dark shard. Star tried to pull it from its case, but it refused to budge. She pulled harder and harder trying to get it to move but to no avail, _Kasula must have put some sort of protective seal on it after the last time that I removed it from the machine,_ Star thought.

To counteract the seal Star would have to use magic and so cast a spell that she thought would be strong to break it. Star tried pulling again and was relieved to find that this time the crystal broke free of the machine when sufficient force was applied to it. The crystal rested in her hand and she could feel a slight drain on her magic. Star watched in wonder as the crystal's colour flushed and turned back to the translucent white that it had been before Kasula corrupted it with her dark influence. The large machine made a whirring sound and Star heard what sounded like gears grinding against each other in a very unhealthy way. The pillar of energy that was keeping the portal open flickered out of existence and the portal above her started to close.

Star looked up at the collapsing gateway and back to Mewni above her. It was too far away now for Star to reach before it closed completely. There was no way she would be able to leave now and Star had made her peace with that. It eased her mind to know that sacrificing herself like this would save so many lives not just in Mewni but across the entire universe. Star closed her eyes, it was too hard to watch her life disappear like that, she knew what she was leaving behind.

"Goodbye Marco." She whispered.

"NOOOO!" A female voiced screamed above her, "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO TAKE THIS FROM ME!"

Star opened her eyes and looked up to see Kasula hovering in mid air cloaked in some kind of dark energy, holding the portal open with her hands. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was borderline frothing at the mouth.

"I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN EVERYTHING I HAVE WORKED SO HARD FOR!"

Star was horrified, worried that her sacrifice would be in vain, until an idea came to her mind. Around Star, the golden soldiers had suddenly sprung to life and rushed to try and restrain Star but she was too fast for them. In a flash of brilliant yellow light, she leapt off of the ground and flew directly upwards, leaving a shining trail behind her. Star could see it, the way out, she could suddenly see how to get her happy ending.

A dark tendril from Kasula rushed past and just about managed to graze the side of her face, which snapped Star back into focus, there would be time to rejoice later. Kasula was attempting to stop Star's ascent via the use of multiple tendrils trying to swat Star right out of the air. Star wasn't going to be stopped now, not when victory was so close, she ducked and dived and dodged out of the way of the assailing tendrils.

Not a single one was able to make contact with Star and this just made Kasula even more desperate. The force of the portal collapsing around her was taking a lot of her focus and that meant she couldn't use her full power to stop Star, she could see her plan unravelling before her eyes and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

When Star was around ten metres from the threshold of the portal, one of the tendrils managed to just about make contact with the flying princess and left a horrible black gash up her right side. The pain was immense and Star could feel her consciousness ebbing away, but she refused to give in now. Star clenched her fists and sped up, climbing the last few metres until she was practically level with Kasula. With as much strength and magical force as she could manage, Star extended her right fist towards Kasula's face.

The blow was powerful, not more powerful than some of the blasts Marco had already seen today, but it was still one punch he would rather not be on the receiving end of. It was strong enough to silence Kasula's wailing and force her back from the portal, causing her to lose her grip and allowed the portal to continue collapsing in on itself. Marco almost jumped for joy when he saw the golden shining princess fall out of the ever shrinking hole in the sky after Kasula. Somehow, she had made it out of that dimension and back to Mewni.

Star smiled as she felt her fist come into contact with Kasula's face, she had been dying to do that ever since she threw Marco across the courtyard. Star closed her eyes as the last shreds of consciousness succumbed to the pain in her right side. The last thing she saw was the landscape of Mewni far beneath her as flakes of golden light fell away from her person signifying that her Butterfly form was ending. Star smiled when she heard the familiar sound of a portal closing behind her, they had won.

* * *

Marco's elation quickly turned into horror as he watched Star's butterfly form dissipate and saw her go into free fall, he wouldn't be able to catch her at this distance because she would be moving too fast. Marco had to think on his feet, his scissors had been shattered so he couldn't open a portal and snatch her out of mid air. He looked to Hekapoo for help but she and Omnitraxxus had been rendered unconscious. There was no one else around to help, and Marco would be damned if he was just going to let Star hit the ground, he moved to intercept and prayed for some kind of miracle. Once he was in position, he closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

But the collision never came. Instead, all he could feel was a slight periodic breeze on his face. Marco opened his eyes to see Moon slowly descending through the air, struggling to hold Star in her arms. Moon's butterfly form was fading fast, Kasula had clearly done a lot of damage to her and it was a wonder that she had been able to catch Star at all. Moon continued her descent until she collapsed onto the ground in front of Marco , laying Star down next to her.

Marco rushed to Star's side and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but he could feel the pulse that proved Star was somehow still alive. Marco cradled her head in his arms and began to cry, the sudden overload of emotions was too much for him to handle. Star's eyelids fluttered open to reveal her two beautiful blue eyes shining up at him.

"Marco?" She called out softly.

"You... you did it Star," he responded looking over to where Kasula had landed just a few metres from them, "you won."

With the aid of Marco, Star managed to get to her feet and they hobbled over to the motionless form of Kasula. She was lying in a small crater that her body had created upon impact with the ground, her eyes were closed and she didn't appear to be moving.

"Do you think she's dead?" Star whispered to Marco.

"I don't know." He said honestly.

Marco used the end of his foot to gently nudge Kasula's elbow. Her eyes suddenly shot open and she started coughing up some sort of black ichor. Star and Marco quickly took a few cautionary steps backwards surprised that she was still alive. Kasula didn't have the strength left to sit up, so instead settled for just turning her head to face Star and Marco, her eyes full of hatred.

"You think you've won?" Kasula spat at them. "You can't _kill_ me, I'm not a _mortal_ like you."

Kasula raised her right hand and pointed towards Star just as it ignited with black flames; Marco instinctively moved in front to shield the very injured Star from harm but to his surprise, the flames crept back along Kasula's arm disintegrating her body as it went, causing her to scream out in pain.

When the last of her had been burned away by the flames, Star and Marco took a deep breath, glad that it was finally over.

"Mom!" Star exclaimed, remembering the state that she must be in and quickly running over to her.

Marco went to check that both Hekapoo and Omnitraxxus had survived their fight with Kasula; they were alive albeit unconscious but Marco knew they could have come away much worse. Marco looked back towards the castle to see that the hordes of golden soldiers had all collapsed to the floor, unable to continue fighting without the dark power of Kasula to guide them. It was going to take a while for the kingdom to recover from the damage that had been done here today but Marco was sure that they would be able to pull through.

* * *

Marco wandered down the halls of Butterfly Castle, taking note of the damage that had been done by Kasula and her forces. In the few short weeks since the battle, repairs had been coming along quickly. Something about being pushed to the edge of extinction really brought the people of Mewni together and everyone seemed to be helping each other.

Against the advice of the Magic High Commission, Star had dispatched workers to many of the dimensions known to have been invaded by Kasula to aid with their repairs. Star wanted to set the foundations for peace with other dimensions during her reign and thought that this would be a good way to go about it.

Marco turned a corner and continued traversing the many corridors, the bouquet he was carrying filled the castle with a floral aroma. He was heading towards the bedroom that belonged to Queen Moon and King River. Moon would still be there recovering from her fight with Kasula; Star wasn't as versed in healing magic as Moon was and so the help that she could offer was limited. Nevertheless her condition was stable and it would only be a matter of time before she regained consciousness.

Once he reached the room, Marco knocked on the door, but there was no response from anyone inside. Marco slowly opened the door and peered around the edge. Moon was still laying in bed unconscious and River was sat in an armchair next to the her, quietly snoring. Marco had also expected to find Star somewhere in here, she had understandably been spending a lot of time with her incapacitated mother, but she was nowhere to be seen. Marco quietly crept into the room and placed the bouquet of flowers he had brought into the empty vase that was next to her bed.

Now that he was in the room, Marco noticed that the door to the balcony was open and there was a slight draught coming in from outside. Marco figured that it must be Star out there and so went outside to join her.

Star was wearing one of her signature dresses and her long blonde hair was slowly waving in the wind. Against the dark orange of the Mewnian sunset, Marco thought that he had never seen her more beautiful than right now. Marco walked up to her left side and put his right arm around her waist. Star let out a content sigh and allowed herself to lean against Marco. They stood like that for a time before Star spoke up.

"Marco, do you remember before all of this started?" She asked.

"Yeah we were in the gardens arguing about something." He responded.

"Do you remember what we were arguing about?"

"Uhh, not really."

"I was trying to ask you something important, but things kept getting in the way and I lashed out at you."

"Star, after everything we've been through, you don't have to apologise for that."

Star shook her head and moved away from Marco a little.

"No that's not what I mean," she said as she took his hands in hers, "I still haven't asked you about it."

"Oh?" Marco said, his voice made up of equal parts worry and curiosity.

"It's about our future, or rather, my future. As you know, my mom is not going to be here forever," she paused to glance over at her sleeping mother, "and sooner or later I'm going to have to fill the position that she will leave behind. It's not going to happen immediately, but the first steps have already been taken. Certain things are expected of a Queen and certain things will be expected from you if you want to stay with me."

Star paused and made sure to make direct eye contact with Marco before continuing.

"So I guess I'm asking if you... will you... " Star took a breath to steady herself, "Marco Diaz, will you marry me?"

Marco's face slowly twisted into an enormous grin as he realised what was happening. He placed his forehead against Star's and whispered to her.

"Of course I will, Star."

Hearing these words caused Star's face to explode into elation and she closed the small distance that remained between them and caught Marco in a deep and passionate kiss. After the newly engaged couple had finished, they stood on the balcony, watching the sun set and thought about the future that awaited them.

* * *

 **A/N: That's it! It's finished, finally. I know I was nearly 3 weeks late with getting the final chapter out, but I was just so indecisive about which direction to go. Special shout out to u/GinsuFe on reddit who helped me out with one particular decision that I second guessed towards the end of writing this chapter. Also want to say thank you again to every one who has bothered to keep up with this story. When I started writing this I never thought that I would be able to finish it but here we are! And I am so glad that I did start it, writing this story has been so much fun for me and I feel immense satisfaction now that it is actually finished. I have ideas for a small epilogue, but there will be no guarantee on when/if I write it. Any feedback on the story as a whole is always welcome, people interacting with me about something I created is a large reason that I actually managed to finish this story!**


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